Not Quite Happily Ever After
by GroovyKat
Summary: When the Doctor dropped Rose and Tentoo off at Bad Wolf Bay, his intention was for them to enjoy a long and happy life together - having the adventure he couldn't have. Tentoo quickly learns that Rose is no longer as infatuated as she once was. Her love had a limit, and that line was crossed some time ago. Why does she continually run and push him away? What's really changed?
1. Their Happy Ever After

A/N: Yeah, I know. I know. Starting a new one when I have others on the go... But this one has been kicking at me for a few weeks, and I can't seem to concentrate on anything else right now.

So, that said, time will be spent between this one and Journey for the next couple of weeks or so.

I know that Rose seems to be flip-flopping a little here with her feelings toward old Tentoo and his full Time Lord self, but love is a crazy fool... it does make you a little skewed and uneven from time to time when things don't quite happen along the path you wish it'd take.

Anyhow. I hope that it begins well enough to attract a reader or two or three or more...

I hope you enjoy!

~~~oooOOOooo~~~

It wasn't until the wind had died down and the last cries of the TARDIS vanished through the crack between the dimensional walls that Rose Tyler twisted her head to her left and looked into the eyes of the Meta Crisis version of the Doctor. Within the brown of his eyes she could see the questions that swirled inside his mind. She could feel, and even taste, the questions his mind was screaming. He was scared. He was lost. For all of his confidence, this half human/half Time Lord man had no clue of where he – they – were going to go from here.

There was slight movement in his fingers as he shifted his hand to clutch a little tighter at hers. There was sweat in his palm, and sweaty palms was something Rose had never felt in a hand hold with the Doctor before…

…It was strange, and she had to fight the compulsion to tear her hand from his with shock.

"I love you Rose."

Rose turned on her heel to first face the Doctor, and then to look back at her mother. Her face creased at the pain she could see in Jackie's face, and she found the excuse she needed to separate from this familiar, and yet strange man who stood at her side.

"Oh, Mum," she cooed as she closed the distance between them to snatch her into her arms. "I love you, too."

Jackie inhaled deeply with a wet sniff. She made an obvious attempt to compose herself and managed a smile as she cupped her daughter's face. "You take care of you and himself, madam. Do you hear me?"

Rose let a tear dribble along the same tracks that her previous tears had taken and nodded shortly. "I will."

"Promise me, Rose," Jackie demanded with urgent sadness. "Promise me you'll take care. Promise me you'll be alright."

"I promise, Mum."

Jackie kept her hands on her daughter's face and looked over Rose's shoulder toward the Doctor on the beach only feet away from them. "You take care of my little girl, Doctor. I'm leavin' her in your hands now, and I expect you to keep your promise to me."

The Doctor offered a thoroughly perplexed expression, but he nodded. "On my TARDIS," he vowed firmly before his face twisted up in pain. "Well. Not that I have a TARDIS to swear on anymore, but the sentiment is the same, of course."

Rose took a step back from her mother and gave her a weak smile. "I guess we should go now."

"Good idea," the Doctor called out with a forced chirp in his tone. "Much rather not have to stand out here all day. Not a very happy place this _Darlig ulv Stranden_. Too dark and dreary if you ask me." He inhaled deeply and spoke in a strangled tone as though trying to hold his breath and speak at the same time. "I'm sure there're plenty of nice places for us to visit in this dimension…"

Rose kissed her mother on the cheek and smiled weakly as she pulled away from her. She turned toward the Doctor and took tentative steps toward him. "I'm very sure there are plenty," she agreed with a small voice.

HE watched her approach and offered her a weak smile of his own. There was a spark of hope and of adoration in his gaze when she finally stood face to face with him. "Then I hope you don't mind playing tour guide and showing me everything this parallel world has to offer."

Rose shook her head lightly and dropped her gaze to watch herself take both of his hands inside hers. She inhaled deeply and then looked back up at him. "Do you trust me, Doctor?"

He swallowed so thickly that his voice croaked out of him. "With my life."

"Will you find me like a blind old fool like I did with you back in London?"

He hesitated slightly before he answered, and when the words came, they sounded confused. "Yes. Yes, of course. To the end of the universe and back. Well, maybe not the universe, unless you have a TARDIS or a craft capable of traveling to the end of the universe. But certainly anywhere on this Earth that you'd like to go."

Rose didn't seem entirely thrilled by his answer, but she offered him a weak smile and thread her arms up around his neck.

"Then Hold me, Doctor."

"Yeah," he stumbled out. "Of course."

Rose looked toward her mother and sniffed wetly. "Love you, Mum."

"Love you too, Sweetheart,"

Before he could begin to wonder why mother and daughter seemed to be speaking to each other with such devastation, the Doctor felt the grip of another universe encircle them both. He yelped out in protest as he instinctively held at Rose's shuddering body a little tighter against him to try and protect her against what was to come. But, he was in no way prepared for the brilliant blinding white light and of the constricting suffocation of passing through the void without protection. He felt close to blacking out as the void tried to separate them and held his vice-like grip around her waist.

He tried to offer assurance that they'd make it through okay, but he couldn't say it with honestly. He felt as though he would pass out and die from the pressure that surrounded them.

And in a pop, the void released. The rushing winds of the void shifted to the song of birds and the bustle of London. The brilliant blinding light muted to the afternoon rays of the sleepy sun moving west. The Doctor gasped, and then he blinked against the glinting sunlight. He flexed his fingers and realised that Rose Tyler was no longer in his embrace. His eyes flashed open and the looked hurriedly around in search of her.

"Rose!"

"I'm here," she answered softly, with distraction marring her words.

When he looked to her, she wasn't looking back at him, instead she had her eyes on the face of a cellphone and was scrolling her finger along the screen with practiced movements. "Are … Are you okay?"

She didn't look up. "Yeah. Fine. Used to it by now," she answered with a sigh. When he spoke her name through a worried whisper, she finally lifted her head to regard him properly. She plastered a smile on her face. "I'd like to tell you that you'd get used to bein' blinded and suffocated by the void, but that'll be your only trip through it. No point."

His brows pinched together tightly. "I don't understand."

She huffed hard through her nose and pulled a disk from inside her trouser pocket. Her expression was unapologetic, and perhaps even slightly aggrieved as she let it fall to the bitumen and then crushed it with the heel of her boot. "One-way trip, that was," she stated firmly. "No goin' back now – no matter what he wants."

Realisation dawned, and the half Time Lord slouched backward and let his jaw fall slack. "Oh. I see. Back in Prime and ready to hunt down my father."

Rose's brow flicked curiously. "Father?"

He thrust his hands into his pockets and scrunched up his nose with disgust. "I grew out of his severed hand, what else do I call him."

She rolled her eyes and chuckled under her breath. "Oh," she breathed out. "I can certainly think of a few things."

"Right," he said with disappointment. "So what's the plan, then? Got your superphone with you, I'm sure if you give him a call, the Doctor will materialise in an instant and take you back out across all time and space. The Doctor and Rose Tyler, as it should be."

He didn't register her dark look of annoyance, preferring not to look at her at all if it was to be helped, and instead kept on with his train of thought. "Well go on, then. Give the Time Lord a call…" He stopped when he heard a derisive snort. He looked toward her and nearly gasped at the furious expression on her face. A few different queries ran through his mind, but he voiced the only one that didn't show that he was actually really discomforted by this sudden turn of events. "Well? Go on. Call him."

Rose's eyes rolled and her head shook as she let out a breath and headed toward the road. She lifted her fingers to her mouth and expelled possibly the loudest whistle he'd ever heard in his ten incarnations of existence. The shrill sound actually made him jump and then shudder with shock.

A sleek black cab quickly pulled into the side of the road. Rose opened the door and slid inside. The Doctor watched with an expression of abandonment when her hand reached out to the door handle. Instead of closing the door, however, Rose leaned out to look at him.

"Well?" she called out impatiently. "Are you coming?"

He didn't need to be asked again. At her question, and the invitation he could hear inside her voice, the Doctor immediately moved his feet to bound toward the cab. He shuffled in beside her and gave her a smile of relief as he closed the door beside him.

"So where to?" he asked at the same moment the cab driver did.

"2132 Aurelian Place," she called out to the cabbie. "And please, take the short cut if you will."

The cab driver whined a little. "Well, love. I don't know that there is a short cut…"

"There's an extra fifty quid in it for you if you do."

The driver chuckled. "2132 Aurelian Place," he chirped out. "The straight through route. Do hold on."

Rose flopped back heavily into the grey leather seat and let out a long breath as the car took off from the curb. She rolled her shoulders and let out a moan that sounded as much pained as it did exhausted. The Doctor very quickly let his hand find hers. He squeezed her hand to offer his sympathies and assurance.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Rose?" He waited until she slid her eyes to him and squeezed her hand a little tighter. "I'll help you find him, but the Doctor-"

"Is out of my life," she interrupted harshly. "Forever."

The vehemence in her voice actually skipped his heart with shock. "You sound so sure of that."

She leaned back heavier into her seat. "He is never to find out that I've returned to this parallel," she stated firmly. She passed him a determined glare. "So don't you dare make any attempts at all to contact him on my behalf. Reach out to him if you want to for your own means, but I won't speak to him."

He cleared his throat with obvious discomfort and actual offence on behalf of the Time Lord who loved her. "That… Well, that sounds very determined and quite honestly final."

"It is," she replied stiffly as her eyes shifted to the window. Her voice quietened to almost inaudible. "He's made it clear enough that he's moved on, so now it's my turn."

"That's not true, and you know it," he defended on a low voice. "You don't know what he sacrificed on that beach.."

"And he's never going to know what I sacrificed for him," she finished gruffly.

"Your family," he stated surely. "You gave them up to go back to him."

She shook her head. "No. I didn't. I didn't return here for him."

"Then can I ask why you returned to this parallel?" One side of his lip turned up in a rueful smile when she snapped a furious glare at him. "I know you, Rose. I know how much you love your mother. For what other reason than for the Doctor would you possibly come back here knowing that you'll never see your own mother ever again?"

The car stopped, and Rose roughly tugged her hand from his. She offered him a darkened glare as she clumsily dug into her jacket pocket for some cash. "No," she growled in reply. "You can't ask, and I'm certainly not going to answer you if you try."

She tossed her money into the front seat, offered a hurried thank you to the driver and quickly climbed out of the car. Once again, she queried whether or not the Doctor was willing to follow her before she slammed the door shut.

Helpless and confused, the Doctor climbed out of the car and followed behind her. He slid his hands into his pockets and tried to think of something – anything – to say that might take this moment from hostile to at least amenable. .

"How about we get something to eat and then have a sleep. Tomorrow, maybe this will all make sense…"

She cut him off with a laugh as she crossed the street and walked up a cobble-stoned walkway toward a large cottage-style home surrounded by cedar hedges. "I don't know if you understand this, Doctor, but nothing about you – nor the Time Lord you – ever make any sense." She pulled a chain with a pair of keys from underneath her shirt and hooped that chain off over her head. "Mental. Everything about you is absolutely mental."

His brow flicked high, and he had to smile at the jovial way in which she made that comment. He felt the tiniest glimmer of hope that her apparent hostility toward his Time Lord self would remain directed only at his Time Lord self. He dared bump at her shoulder with his and chuckled.

"Oh, but that just makes it all the more _exciting_ , doesn't it?"

She stopped for a moment and inhaled a deep breath. She shook her head and strode to the front door of the house, easily sliding her key into the lock. "More confusing and frustrating than _exciting_ , Doctor." She opened the door and stepped across the threshold, not looking back at him when she continued to speak. "You truly don't understand just how much being with you can change a person, do you?"

He thrust his hands deeply into his trouser pockets and slumped as he followed behind, and then passed by her into the house. His voice was deep and quiet, perhaps slightly petulant. "I think I have quite a good idea about that, actually."

Rose chuckled to herself as she closed the door behind him to shut them away from the outside world. She walked past him to lead him toward the living room. "No. You really don't."

He lifted his eyes to hers and offered her a look of challenge. "I'm fully aware of how my actions and way of life affect my companions, Rose."

She laughed. Her face was an expression of total and utter mirth at his statement. 'How?" she asked after a breath. '"You never stick around to find out. Never mind go back and check on how they're doing."

"Is this about Sarah-Jane," he asked flatly.

Rose shook her head. "No, Doctor. It's about more than just Sarah-Jane." She walked past him toward the kitchen.

He was quick to follow. "I've been back, you know, to visit and see how she's doing."

"How kind of you," Rose said in a far more genuine tone of voice than the intention of her words. "She's a good woman, Doctor. She deserved better than that."

"It hurt me to lose her," he growled. "It hurts me to lose them all. Do you have any idea how it feels to lose everyone you care about? How it feels to watch them age, whither, and then die, while you live on?"

She muttered something under her breath that he didn't quite decipher, but he heard the tone of utter devastation. It made him pause. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

She inhaled deep and held that breath a moment as though to compose herself, and then exhaled roughly. "I said," she answered with false confidence, "that you might want to come up with a new catch phrase. _Curse of the Time Lords_ doesn't exactly apply to you anymore, does it?"

"Until now it always had," he defended with a sneer. "And that's a fear that's going to be very hard to overcome."

She nodded knowingly and closed her lashes over reddened eyes. "I imagine so," she breathed sadly. "Which means that you should probably come with me." She inhaled a shaking breath. "There's someone you need to meet."

He eyed her hand suspiciously as she extended it toward him in invitation to take it inside his own. His eyes flicked up to hers, full of question and apprehension. "Meet _who_?"

She snatched his hand in hers and tugged him toward a white door at the side of the kitchen. "Someone who misses her _Doctor_ very, very much."

She stood at the door a moment and pressed her palm against the painted wood as though trying to convince herself to open it up and let him in. Her fingertips tapped lightly against the lacquer, and then finally dropped to take the door handle in hand. She twisted the knob and pushed open the door. "She was near death when I found her. She was ready to give it all to save your life, but I wouldn't let her die. I couldn't let her die."

The Doctor seemed quite perplexed as he watched her flick on the light and hesitate before leading him down the steps into the basement. "Who?"

Rose sniffed. "Your best friend," she answered softly, yet with a reverent smile on her face as she looked up into his own puzzled expression.

"But, but that's you," he answered quickly. He then blinked and smiled a reverent smile of his own. "And Donna. Martha. Romana. Oh, so many of you. I don't know that I could really put any of you above the other. Well. Maybe _you_ , but my feelings for you quite obviously extend beyond mere friendship."

"You mean that you don't whisper _I love you_ in all of their ears?"

He heard sadness and not teasing in her tone, and shook his head. "No, Rose. Only you."

"I wish I could believe you," she whispered softly.

He stopped her descent down the stairs by lightly grabbing at her upper arm. "Why can't you believe it, Rose?"

She snorted in a laugh of incredulity toward his question. "How can I, Doctor, when you've done everything you can to push me away and prove to me that you don't?"

He followed her to the end of the stairs, wanting her to touch safe and solid ground before speaking again. When they both touched the floor, he cupped her arms in his hands and turned her around to face him. He dipped his head to make sure she was looking into his eyes, and gasped at the pain he saw inside them.

"Rose Tyler," he breathed out through a forced smile. "That all ends now. It's you and me from here on out. Rose Tyler, the Doctor, living the slow life together. No TARDIS, no alien threats to chase off, no time nor space travel to distract us." He rubbed his hands up and down her arms. "I've offered to spend this one life I've got left with you; to grow old together at the same time. Mortgages, carpets, windows and doors."

She sniffed wetly.

He continued. "Marriage and children - if you want." He sniffed and lifted his eyes to contemplate that a moment. "In time," he amended, "of course. I mean, we need to get to know each other a bit better again. It's been quite a while since we've seen each other last, and I expect that it might take some time to come to terms with each other's new nuances…"

"Doctor…"

He gave her a wide smile, happy at the crack in her voice thinking that she was coming around, and that they just might be able to work through all of this and start anew. "Yes, Rose?"

She swallowed thickly. "Before you make me any promises made because you've been cast out and forced to live yourself a life on the slow path…"

"That's not the reason I'm making this promise," he vowed. "I've wanted this—" his words were cut when she pressed her finger against his lip to shut him up.

"Don't," she growled warningly. "You saying that makes a fool out of us both, Doctor. Given the first opportunity, you'd run again." She snatched her finger away from his mouth. "It's your M.O."

"That's cruel," he replied with affront.

"Yes," she agreed. "Cruel most definitely."

"I think you're misinterpreting just who is the victim of the cruelty, Rose."

She looked down her shoulder and lifted her hand to point in toward the darkness. "Perhaps. Or perhaps I just know you too well."

"I don't entirely think that you do, Rose."

She looked up at him with a smile. "Before you make any grandiose declarations and promises of complete and utter devotion, or challenge just how much you think I know you," she said on a whispered voice. She sniffed. "Before you truly believe you've lost your ability to pick up and travel throughout all time and space like you always have…" She flicked on another light and looked toward a blue box seated toward the back of the basement.

The Doctor immediately rushed around her to lay his hands on the wooden door of his beloved blue Time ship. "My … My TARDIS," he exclaimed with surprise. Thrill and excitement filled his features, and the boy within the Time Lord rose once again to the surface. He kissed the door and hugged at the box. "It's only been a couple of hours, but oh, my old girl, I've missed you!" His voice became an excited growl. "Two hours without you! Two hours to think of all the planets I haven't been to yet! Oh! Oh, I have so many plans for where we go to next!"

His smile was broad and his excitement palpable as he spun toward Rose to regale her with promises of where and when they were going to go next, but all he found was an empty space.

"Rose?"

There was no way at all that Rose could have vanished through thin air, so he looked around the room, and then toward the stairs, where he managed to catch her on an upward climb toward the upper floor.

"Rose?"

She looked down at him and blew him a friendly, and final kiss. "Good bye, Doctor."

He pointed toward the TARDIS with both hands. "But. But don't you want to come?"

She shook her head. "No, Doctor." A smile stretched across her face. "But you go. Have your fun swannin' about up there and getting into mischief."

"Alone?"

"Nah," she sang as she jutted her chin toward the blue ship. "You've got the TARDIS. Get out there, both of you. Do what you do best. Don't worry about me. I'm okay. Got a life to lead, and all that. Defender of the Earth or something."

"But…"

"Go, Doctor," she said with a more forceful tone in her voice. "Please. I'd rather you leave now, than later when your feet become too itchy to stay." She sniffed and lifted her chin to feign a well held composure. "I'm going to step out for a bit. Please don't be here when I get back."


	2. Talk Talk

A/N: I intended on this being a short chapter ... but it really got away from me. I realised that there were questions that the Doctor would ask, and so the two of them had to have a wee chat.

I apologise if it prattles on a little too long, but these two ... they just ...

Oh, I dunno.

I sincerely hope you enjoy and that I've given you a few questions, and perhaps a little intrigue to keep you with me.

~~oooOOOooo~~

It was close to midnight when Rose returned to her home. Loaded down with two plastic bags of groceries, and one rather large paper bag from the local liquor store, all she wanted to do was to kick off her shoes, slide into the bath, and finish off the bottle of wine that she'd started drinking from the moment she stepped out of the store.

She could still smell the filth of the crucible on her. That combined with the assault on her olfactory senses from the acrid odour of regeneration energy from the Doctor's aborted attempt at changing to a new man, and Rose was pretty close to retching.

A long and hot bath would certainly do her wonders. By now the Doctor should have been well on his way into mischief and mayhem across time and space, so there would be no distraction on her way up to the bathroom.

A smile finally graced her tired features as she juggled her packages and unlocked the front door. She crossed into the foyer, dropped the grocery bags to the floor, and spun the lid of her wine with the open palm of her hand. Her smile widened at the sound of it noisily clanging to the floor, and she found herself counting the bounces as she lifted the bottle to her lips and drew back a full mouthful.

With the bottle still against her lips, she tipped to one side to collect the two plastic shopping bags and lifted them to walk toward the kitchen. She frowned when she saw the light of the kitchen just beyond the lounge room, but shrugged it off thinking that the Doctor had been so eager to leave that he'd neglected to turn off the lights.

When she strode into the kitchen, however, and looked to the table, she realized that her assumption about the Doctor leaving swiftly had been wrong. On the kitchen counter was to a pot of tea, a pair of cups, all the fixings including biscuits and finger sandwiches, and one very tired and perhaps slightly miffed half Time Lord in a pinstriped suit.

"Oh," she said flatly, managing to successfully suppress the surprise she felt. "You're still here."

"Indeed I am," he replied with equal flatness to his tone as he waved his hand in a gesture to sit across the island from him. "Please. Sit. I made tea."

Rose placed her bags on the floor beside the fridge and tipped up her bottle of wine. "I'm good thanks."

"At least sit down," he half pleaded. ""And talk to me, Rose."

Her head bobbed in an almost jovial nod of acquiescence and she took a seat across from him. She tipped back her head to take a long draw of her wine from the bottle and dropped her elbows on the counter in a slouch. She gave him a smile and tipped her head to one side. "Any particular topic you had in mind, Doctor?"

His eyes were tired and sad, and when he spoke his voice held both qualities. "Why do you hate me so much?"

"Not hate," she replied with a shrug. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that I hate you – or even the Time Lord you." She lifted her eyes to the ceiling and inhaled deeply. "Frustrated, indifferent, hurt, betrayed, confused, maybe, but there's no hatred in there." She looked back at him. "I can try all I want to, Doctor, but I can't _hate_ you."

"Can you still _love_ me, then?"

She snorted out a breath at that. It wasn't a sound of disdain, it was one of mirth and she ended it with a single, breathy laugh. "Goes without saying, really." At that point she laughed a little more obviously. "Doesn't _need_ saying, apparently. But, yes, Doctor. I love you. I always will…."

His expression brightened somewhat.

"But," Rose said quickly upon seeing the brightness return to his eyes. She held up her hand in a gesture for him to wair. "But this love I have for you, it isn't unconditional. Like you, I have to protect my hearts…"

"Heart," he corrected. "Only the one of them now."

"Yeah," she drawled. "Heart." She waited for him to say something and, upon realising that she'd effectively silenced the oncoming babble, she softened her voice and her stance and looked toward him with a gentle expression. "Doctor. I gave you everything I had to give. I worshipped the air that you breathed and the ground you walked on. You were my hero, and the single most important man to ever enter my life."

His voice was pained. "You have no idea how much it hurts to hear you use past tense."

She considered him a moment, drew back another mouthful of wine from the bottle, and then sat up straight in her chair. "Do you remember me tellin' you about my ex, Jimmy?" She watched his brow crease and his head lightly nod. "Well I fell for 'im. I fell hard. I was willing to give up absolutely everything for that man. I dropped out of school, I left home, I followed him without a second thought to anyone or anythin' else. I barely knew 'im, but I was so infatuated with him that I threw caution into the wind, took his hand, and ran. My sun rose and set with 'im, and no one else could tell me that he was anything less than completely wonderful."

She blinked and looked toward him. "Sound familiar?"

A rather dark look crossed his features. "You are _not_ comparing me to Jimmy Stone."

Rose tipped her head to one side. "Well…"

"I am not a womanizing, abusive monster…" He reached out fast to grab her hand. "Rose. I would never … _never_ … hurt you."

She tipped her head side to side in agreement. "I know that Doctor." She swallowed. "I'm actually talkin' about me and how hard and fast I fell for you." She smiled. "Such a mysterious man you were. So unique and one of a kind. You were unlike anyone I've ever met before … Oh," she sighed wistfully. "I fell so hard for you, even with your big ears and gruff personality. I thought notin' and no one would ever compare to you. And you know what? They can't."

"Leather and ears fell for you too, Rose."

"Yeah," she sang with a smile. "He did, didn't he? With him, I always felt special. I felt safe. I wasn't scared to tell me how he felt, how he was so glad he met me, I was his plus one, that I was the best." She looked past the Doctor toward a photograph on the wall of the man in question, and a smile spread across her face. "Even a Dalek could see it, Doctor." She dropped her eyes to his. "A Dalek. An emotionless robot called me the woman that you love, and you didn't deny it."

"Because it's true," the Doctor whispered.

"Yeah," she said with a nod. She took another swig from her bottle and swallowed heavily, enough that her voice sounded strangled when she spoke again. "But that was 'im. He loved me, and I knew it." She pointed at him. "You, on the other hand. You." She chuckled. "Well, from the moment you came out of the fire, I couldn't have felt any less loved…"

"That's not true at all," he argued softly. "I am who I am, what I look like, because of you. I am _me_ , because I thought that's what you would _want_ me to be."

"Really?" she asked doubtfully.

"Yes, Rose."

"Okay," she sang doubtfully. "So during your regeneration, you figured out that being a loving, caring, fun, and often devoted man wasn't what I wanted? You thought I'd be far more interested in a smooth-talkin', ignorant man who flirts with anything in a skirt that isn't me, that will snog and fall on love with complete strangers, meanwhile completely neglectin' and ignorin' the one…" She stopped herself and held up a hand to prevent him from cutting in at all. She lowered her head and took a few deep breaths before she could lift her eyes again to his, and when she did, she could see the regret and apology in his expression.

"After Jimmy," she began softly. "I vowed that I'd never fall again like that and become another doormat. I said I'd never fall in love with a man and stand by while he messed about with other women." Devastation moved in at that moment, and Rose could barely speak around the lump in her throat. "I promised myself, Doctor. I promised myself I'd never let that 'appen again, an' I didn't…. Until I met you." She inhaled a rapid series of short breaths. "Not original you, but _you_ you, this … this…" she swirled her hand in front of him. "This happy puppy version of you."

He moved out of his seat and walked around the table. He stopped his approach when she held up her hand and shook her head. He could see that she was battling to regain her composure and held fast in place, despite the desperation he felt to pull her into his arms and beg her forgiveness. All he managed to say, however, was a soft utterance of her name.

Rose sniffed, coughed, and then sniffed again. She swallowed and set her bottle on the table. "So. So I decided that I'm not doin' it anymore. I told myself that I'd find you, tell you that the universe was in danger, and if you wanted me to stay I would." She ran her hand through her hair and winced back her hurt. "But if you went and sent me away again, then that was it. No more, Doctor. My Hearts can't take it."

"I'm promising you forever," he vowed fiercely as he finally moved from his frozen place on the other side of the island. He held out his arms like a penitent man and did all but fall to his knees at her. "I'm not now, and I'm not ever planning to push you away."

Her voice was almost inaudible. "I wish I could believe you." Her inhale was a wet sniff. "But old habits die hard, Doctor. Pretty soon, you're going to want to swan off and play about in space and time, and I'll be left behind…"

"No you won't."

"I _will_." She corrected. "Because I won't be going with you." She spoke quickly with an actual cheerful and supportive tone of voice. "You have your TARDIS, and she's ready and waiting to go back out there, Doctor. So let's not disappoint the old girl. Off you go!"

His demeanour stiffened somewhat. " _My_ TARDIS," he repeated slowly.

"Yes, Doctor, _your_ TARDIS."

He pressed his lips together tightly and nodded sharply. His hands found their way into his pockets and he rocked back onto his heels. "I've been meaning to ask you about her, actually."

"Okay," she breathed with a smile. "What did you want to know?"

His voice remained calm, but held a slight hint of morbidity. "Am I dead?"

Rose had been taking a mouthful from her bottle when he posed the question, and the shock of it made her choke and then spit out half of her mouthful. She swallowed what was left and looked at him with shock and question. "Are you _what_?"

"Dead," he repeated calmly. He started a to pace a little, digging his hands deeper inside his pockets. "I would expect that your answer is _yes_ to that question. I can't see any other way that you could have procured my TARDIS if I wasn't." He stopped pacing and looked at her. "So tell me. Did I die? How did I die? And how did you then end up with my TARDIS in your basement?"

Rose let out a small chuckle. "Ahh. And the truth of the matter does come out." She sighed hard. "So much for waiting around to clarify your feeling toward me. I have to give you credit for your patience, Doctor."

"No point in me trying to deny it," he grumbled by reply. "You've already drawn your own conclusions about my motivations, so why bother?"

"Indeed," she agreed. Again she exhaled hard before speaking. "As to whether or not you're dead, I suppose the best answer I can give you is to say yes." She shook her head at his gasp. "But not in this dimension. Your death was in another parallel – a pocket parallel – where Donna and you hadn't met."

His mouth dropped open and he exhaled a long breathy sound of understanding.

"Died under the Themes," she continued with a shaking voice. "You defeated the enemy of the day, which I believe was the Racnoss, but without Donna there to save you, you drowned under the Themes. I have no idea why you didn't regenerate –"

"Quite simply, Rose, it was because I was so consumed with grief over your loss that I didn't _want_ to go on," he interrupted in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice.

"Oh pull the other one," she growled.

"I'm not pulling anything, Rose," he stated firmly. "When I met Donna, I had literally just said good bye to you on the beach. I missed my chance to tell you that I loved you. I was full of regret and grief and hatred toward the entire universe for taking you away from me." He walked toward her and motioned to take hold of her arms, but stopped himself at the last second from doing so. "I stood on the stairs with the water of the Themes crashing down over me and I just decided: today was the day. I was going to let it take me, die, and then not regenerate." His eyes were wide and incredibly sad. "I didn't want to go on, Rose. You were gone, and with you so did my will to carry on."

Rose sniffed and her voice was croaked. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor's demeanour quickly changed. "But Donna! Oh, that fiery, brilliant woman. She wouldn't let me die. She knew that I had better things to live for. She talked me out of it, and together the two of us escaped."

"Not in this parallel," Rose said softly. "By the time I found you, you were just a body on a gurney. I saw your arm, and your trademark pinstripes fall from under the blanket, and I knew you were gone. Donna. Well. Donna was just a curious bystander who had no clue at all how important you are."

"Or how important _she_ was," he added with a smile of reverence on his face.

"The most important woman in all of creation," Rose breathed out. She then shook herself and took a step backward to begin pacing herself. "So, anyway. I found the TARDIS, who showed me what to do to prevent your death in the prime universe. We worked with Unit to show Donna where she needed to be, and the TARDIS used what power she had left to make sure that it happened."

Rose winced. "That was a long few months trapped in that parallel, let me tell you." She looked back at him. "I couldn't leave until I'd fixed the mess. I saw things, Doctor, while I was there that I never _ever_ want to see again. I don't want _anyone_ to have to see anything like that ever again."

The Doctor didn't hesitate this time. He lunged forward and seized her in a tight grasp. He exhaled hard across her head as he tucked it underneath his chin and held her tight. "I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Doctor," she said with a sigh. "I wish I could say it was the worst thing I witnessed during my dimension hopping, but it really wasn't."

"I wish you didn't have to jump at all," the Doctor said against her hair.

She nestled into his chest. "I had no choice."

"There's always a choice."

"Not this time." She finally pulled back from him and tucked her hair behind her ear with a shaking hand. "There're a few reasons I started jumping, Doctor. It really wasn't _all_ about _you_ , you know."

His curiosity piqued, he leaned his hip against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. " Oh? And just what might those reasons be?"

"Those reasons are mine," she answered quickly. "And none of them really concern you, so let's move on, shall we?"

His head tilted to one side and his eyes narrowed. His voice was playful, although it was a warning that he wasn't going to let it just go. "Anything that concerns you concerns me, Rose Tyler."

"Back to the TARDIS, yeah?" she said quickly, hoping that more news about the TARDIS would immediately take the Doctor's mind of everything else.

The expression on his face warned that he wasn't thrilled about the abrupt return to their previous topic, but he gave her a nod to continue. "Yes, so about my TARDIS."

"In that parallel, the TARDIS was without her pilot." She waited for him to nod. "And while typically, a TARDIS won't symbiotically link to another Time Lord – preferring to throw themselves to their own death –"

"And how do you know that?" he questioned curiously. "I don't think that I've ever told you about the TARDIS and her symbiotic link with her Time Lord."

"Well," Rose hedged. She thought for a second and then smiled. "Well. _She_ told me, didn't she."

"How?" he queried. "They communicate telepathically, not with words."

"On her monitor."

"Which only ever displays in Gallifreyan."

She could sense his curiosity and his frustration at not getting his answer, but kept on her path. "In _her_ parallel, the Doctor wasn't so guarded about what information was on the screen to only present it in Gallifreyan. She showed me English." She tipped her head to one side. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, am I correct?"

"Fine," he answered with a nod. "IT still doesn't quite explain to me how you ended up with a machine that should at that point be quite suicidal…"

"She's special," Rose snarled. "She fights, and lives on."

"And forms a bond with a human so that she could pass though a parallel world, travel through time, and land on Earth," he looked around. "In a very precise location."

Rose faltered. "Uh. Right. Yes, to all of that. I guess."

He took one hand from his pocket and swirled his wrist in the air ahead of him as he began to walk in a wide circle around her. "Thing about bonds and telepathic connections, Rose Tyler, is that all parties engaging in telepathic couplings have to have telepathic ability." He kept walking. "And, well, a connection such as that required by a TARDIS is not something that anyone with only rudimentary or unevolved telepathic receptors can achieve."

"There's a point to this, I take it?"

"Yes," he said firmly as he strode quickly toward her and stooped in his stand to bring his eyes level with hers. He stared into them for a long moment. "TARDIS can't form a bond with a human, Rose. So how did she managed to form one with you?"

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. TARDIS is a smart girl, she knew what needed to be done, and she did it. Now she has you – her Time Lord – with his brilliant telepathic receptor thingies in place and she can achieve the full bond she's looking for." She then shrugged. "Which I'm perfectly fine with, and once she's outta my head, then perhaps I can have a day without a headache."

"So," he began slowly. "To confirm: This TARDIS is from a parallel world in which I died. She helped you to make sure that I didn't suffer the same fate here in the Prime Universe, and then formed a temporary link with you to get back here. Where she has been recovering for …. For just _how long_?"

"Long enough, Doctor."

He rubbed at his jaw. "Being as close to death as she must have been at that point, well, that would take years, perhaps even decades to recover from." He lifted a brow. "And here she is perfectly healed, happy, and ready to take off into the vortex."

Rose smiled. "Well. I suppose I have the magic touch, then, don't I?"

"How long, Rose," he demanded darkly "How long has it been since I saw you last?"

She walked up to him and lifted up onto her toes to stand nose to nose with him. "You tell me, Doctor," she said smoothly. "Take a good look at me and you tell me just how long you think it's been since I saw you last." She smirked. "And be careful, a women doesn't want to be told that she looks older than she is."

He narrowed his eyes and looked hard into hers. He took some time searching the amber-brown colour of her eyes, and finally blew out a breath and released his gaze on her. "Two, maybe three years at most," he said with a disappointed sigh.

"Four and a bit," she corrected with a smile. "TARDIS has been with me for only a month. It wasn't that long ago that I was stuck in the parallel world with Donna." She looked back toward the basement door. "And I only got out because of her, you know, the TARDIS. My hopper went down a month after I landed in that world."

He nodded slowly. "I see." He lifted his yes to hers. "And how much of that four and a bit years did you spend here in this parallel?"

Rose frowned. "I don't know what you mean."

"Simple enough question," he remarked after a deep inhale. "In your timeline we were apart for _four and a bit years_. How much of that was spent on this side of the dimensional wall?"

"What makes you think that?"

He twirled in place with his arms open and looked to the ceiling. "Well, Rose. You own a house that has quite obviously been decorated by you – if the photographs on the wall are anything to go by." He looked back at her. "You certainly know your way around here well enough. Seems to me that it'd take a little longer than a month to put this all together."

She immediately looked away from him and ran her hand through her hair. "I had some help from Jack."

He nodded with obvious disbelief. "I see," he remarked slowly. "So in this time of dimension hopping, of which you absolutely didn't have anywhere to live, you reached out to Jack, who aided you in procuring rather lavish accommodation…" He looked around. "…of a _permanent_ nature."

"Contingency plan if you decided to kick me out of the TARDIS in my very own version of Aberdeen, yeah."

His eyes flashed, but he couldn't exactly take offence to it, considering his Time Lord self did indeed dump her off in her very own _Aberdeen_. "So this was your plan all along?"

She nodded quickly. "It was."

He scratched at his sideburn. "I suppose your lack of surprise at seeing Jack makes sense, then."

She grinned, relief plastered across her features. "Because I'd already been in contact with him and had my moment of surprise."

His eyes shifted back to hers. "So. Only a month, then?" he implored suspiciously. "No more than that."

She rolled her eyes yet again and shook her head. "You're being ridiculous, Doctor."

"No," he breathed out. "I don't know that I am."

"Then what are you suggesting? That I'm a quasi-immortal, non agin', being, and that I've been lazin' about London for fifty years, making a home for myself, meanwhile jumping from parallel to parallel every year or so wearing the same outfit on every jump so that my team back in the parallel world think that I'm back and forth on the same day? Prove to them that I'm just normal old Rose Tyler: Human, and not some tampered with alien hybrid…:

His stare flattened, but he said nothing in reply.

"Mental," Rose growled. "I mean it. You're absolutely mental."

"You're hiding _something_ from me, Rose," he said in warning. "I know you are. I can feel it. And I'll get to the bottom of it."

She grabbed her bottle of wine and took a draw from it. Her swallow was thick and long, and she coughed before she could speak. "Well have at it, then, Doctor," she answered flippantly. "I'm afraid you'll just end up bored and disappointed." She smiled and opened her arms to him. "I'm just me: Rose Tyler. Council Estate brat who didn't get her A-Levels and has a penchant for running off with complete strangers to get her fill of life and adventure."

"I'm just worried about you, Rose." He took a step toward her. "You know how I feel about you…."

"And how's that, then?"

He gave her a confused look. "I'm sorry?"

She grinned. "Can you say it?"

"Say what?"

"How you feel about me."

He slouched and his face creased into a wince of frustration. "I did!" he exclaimed. "I said it to you, on the beach, right before I snogged the daylights out of you."

She shook her head and coyly drew back on her wine. When she swallowed she licked at her lips. "That wasn't a snog that curled my toes, Doctor. That was PG rated if anything, lips on lips, and nothing else." She stepped toward him and looped an arm around her neck. She wasn't at all surprised to see his cheek dimple and his jaw set as he fought the urge to very quickly back away. "A real kiss, Doctor, a real _first_ kiss is wet, messy, passionate, full of clashing teeth and tongues, and most often, vey clumsy."

His eyes fell to her lips and he made a helpless sound in the back of his throat when he saw her tongue gently sweep out to wet them. "Will I have to express my love for you again in order to experience that type of kiss?"

"Can you?" she asked him with challenge.

"Can I what? Tell you that I love you, Rose? Tell you that my universe revolve around you, that there is no meaning in my life unless you're a part of it?" He shifted closer and settled his hands on her hips. "I think I'm capable of it."

"Say it," she whispered.

"I love you, Rose. For the rest of my life, the one and only one I have left, I will always love you."

She gasped and clutched hard at the lapels of his blue blazer. Her lips parted and drove up hard against his waiting, open mouth. Her hands moved to his head, and she drew him toward her with fierce possessiveness, locking his hair in her fingers to hold him in place.

His hands, that had settled so gently upon her waist shifted quickly to snap around her hips and back. He angled his head deeply to one side and drew her into him with a passion that neither of them had given the other credit for.

As promised, it was wet, messy, passionate, loud with clashing teeth and tongues. It was frantic, and despite the control within each of them, it was very, very clumsy.

Rose pulled away from him first. She released him with a pop and a gasp that had her stumble backward away from him. With panted breath she touched at her swollen lower lip and staggered toward the counter.

"My God," she whimpered out when she took in his dishevelled stance and the hanging gape of his jaw. He didn't pick up his lip, lick at it, or even close his mouth to swallow. He looked upon her with utter reverence and awe and panted through his open mouth.

She then swallowed awkwardly and grabbed her bottle of wine from the counter. "Um. Yes. That was much better that time around."

All he could do was nod. His eyes were as wide as saucers.

Rose found her composure and gave herself a full body shake. She then smiled and lifted her bottle of wine and thumbed toward the stairs. "I – I'm going to go take a bath and … and then turn in for the night. You. You're welcome to stay here as long as you need to."

His mouth still hung and he nodded his head with thanks.

Rose waited for him to speak, to say something – _anything_. When he didn't she turned on her heel and walked to the stairs. She settled her hand gently on the bannister and stopped to look back at him before she took her first step.

"I love you, too, Doctor," she said gently with a smile. "Despite everything, I do love you." She took her eyes from his and looked up toward the bathroom door at the top of the stairs. "I just … I can't have my heart broken again." She looked back to him. "And no matter how many promises you make me, eventually you'll be gone, and I'll be heartbroken and alone. I can't bear it."

He said nothing as he watched her walk out of the room. He still hadn't licked his lips or even closed his mouth. He still panted through his open mouth as he looked toward the basement doors. Downstairs was his TARDIS, and inside that TARDIS was a fully operational scientific laboratory where he could perform all kinds of genetic and DNA analysis.

She was on his lips and in his mouth… That should be plenty of specimen to perform a couple of tests.

He would learn her secrets... and he knew she had plenty of them.


	3. Disobedient TARDIS

A/N: This chapter isn't so long and drawn out, and it even manages to cover off two separate scenes ... which is cool, and totally unlike me.

Anyhoo ... hope you enjoy

~~oooOOOooo~~

Garbled and indecipherable English lines of data continued to scroll across the laboratory's monitors, despite the Doctor's insistence that the ship revert back to Gallifreyan. Many of the tests he had performed upon what little sample the TARDIS would accept were too highly advanced for Human civilisations, and had no direct translation into any of Earth's languages. The only civilisation that would – _that could_ – conduct test of this nature and correctly decipher the data were the Time Lords…

…So bad TARDIS for not playing fair and reporting the results in the language of the Time Lords.

The Doctor finally swept his glasses off his face and cupped hi hand underneath his chin. He stared at the monitor and then looked to the ceiling and slouched back heavily into his rolling desk chair to focus his full attention on the ceiling. He kicked his feet on the floor to roll back a little and then crossed one ankle over his knee and folded his arms across his chest.

"Is there any particular reason why you're refusing to translate this data into something – oh I dunno – more appropriate than Earth-English?"

There was a change in the hum of the ships engines that may have been a petulant humph, but the language on the monitor did not change.

The Doctor kicked the floor to spin him around in place a couple of times. "Still refusing, dear? For what reason would you speak in the language of Humans and not the Time Lords." He kicked again to turn a pair of spins in his chair. "You've never spoken English in the past – oh – 900 years that I'm aware of." He stopped spinning and sat up. "Oh, yes. Well there was that time when you lost me and had to give flight instructions to Tegan and Adric…"

He looked up to the ceiling and slouched backward again. "Done under extreme duress, so I understand…"

He huffed out and threaded his fingers together to rest his hands on his chest. He blew out a long breath though his lips. HE wasn't quite defeated, but he was most certainly frustrated by the TARDIS' refusal to cooperate. HE maintained his slouched seat and focused on an orange divot in the coral ceiling above him. "Are you unwell? Hmmmm? Were some of your translation and communication circuits damaged when you almost died?"

His eyes dropped to the monitor, but he didn't move from his slouch. "Whatever's wrong, I'm sure I can repair the damage." He tipped his head to one side. "I could always contact my _father_ and have him take a look at you as well. Between the three of us and your parallel sister, I'm sure we can…" His eyes lit up when the garbled lines of English warped, skipped, and then switched to scrolling circular Gallifreyan.

Immediately the Doctor leapt out of his chair and eagerly approached the monitor. He rubbed his hand together as he analysed the spinning circles for a brief second before growling, and lifting his eyes to the monitor.

"Well. I see that your knowledge of the more colourful Gallifreyan curses are intact." He sniffed. "Now how about you use your apparently infinite knowledge of our people's language to give me the answers I'm looking for."

The images shifted to new lines of circular Gallifreyan, and the words within only served to annoy the Doctor further. "There's really no need to speak to me in that manner, old girl," he said with a snort through his nose. "If you're not willing to give me the answers, then just say so. This run around and pretending not to remember how to analyse data in the language specific to the testing really is quite demeaning to us both."

He stepped back from the monitor and paced the small laboratory. "I will say that I'm a little disappointed in you, TARDIS. All I'm doing is trying to make sure that our Rose Tyler is safe and healthy and you're being very much uncooperative…" He paused and shifted his eyes to the monitor as it lit up with a new stream of text. He rolled his eyes guiltily. "Well. Okay. Maybe I am being a little nosey. But I just want to make sure she's okay." He opened his arms to the TARDIS in pleading. "Something's not right about her. She's got secrets, and I need to know that those secrets aren't ones that are dangerous." He swallowed thickly and lowered his voice. "Now, I don't know what kind of man I was to you and to Rose in the parallel you're from. I don't know if he loved her as much as I do, but…"

The data changed again, and this time the text flashed red and pulsed angrily. The Doctor was immediately taken aback by her vehemence, and held up his hands in his own defence. "Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I get it: No matter what parallel I'm in, I love her."

He pursed his lips and looked downward as the angry flashing text pulsed back to a more calm green. He kept his head low, but he raised his eyes to the monitor. "Can I ask you a question that you _might_ be able to answer?"

He lifted his chin to level out his gaze. "During Rose's jumps, did she encounter any version of me that treated her poorly?" His voice turned to pleading. "Please? I have to know what I did that made her so angry at me. I need to know how to make it right."

This time, rather than anger, the TARDIS replied with apology and not anger. The symbols on the monitor were more of a shake of her head than an outright refusal to answer him. The Doctor knew from that response, that whatever it was that had upset his pink and yellow girl, it wasn't solely at his hand – despite the words that Rose had used.

"If you won't come forth and give me the answers I need, can you at least assure me that whatever it is, that Rose is safe?"

The answer on the monitor was swift, and it was vehement. If the TARDIS has anything at all to do with it, then _this_ Rose Tyler was the safest person in the entire Multiverse.

The Doctor smiled thankfully. "Between the pair of us, we'll make sure you're right about that."

As the screen darkened and the TARDIS' hum settled comfortably in the back of his mind, the Doctor stretched out his back. He yawned loudly against the back of his hand, and then rubbed at the back of his neck. He hadn't considered just how long he'd been unsuccessfully analysing test results, but judging by the grumble in his belly and the dryness of his yes, it had to be a few hours.

… _Nine hours and twenty six minutes, actually_ , his mind supplied.

"I suppose that means I've retained some of my time sense," he remarked to himself as he padded quietly through the door and along the corridor that would take him through the console room and back into Rose's basement. Oh, there was much more to the sull time sense of a Time Lord than merely picking off hours and minutes, but this was a good start. A quick trip via TARDIS to land in an alternate time and place and he'd know for sure if he'd retained the one thing that truly made him a Lord over Time.

First thing first, however. He was going to find Rose and make breakfast for the two of them. Perhaps he can coax her into opening up to him a little more.

HE smirked as he pulled back on the door to exit, but that smile quickly fell when he saw a tray with food and a thermos of tea blocking his way out. With a crease in his brow, he dropped into a crouch to pick up a tented card that covered the cutlery.

 _Good morning Doctor._

 _I'm glad to see that you chose to take up residence in your TARDIS rather than in the house. She's missed you terribly, and I'm sure she's eager to take you up into the Vortex and back out across space._

 _Of course, you shouldn't go off without a belly full of food and tea, so I made you up a plate and a thermos of Mum's special brew to get you started._

 _Sorry I'm not there to wish you my best on your trip, but Earth-Bound me has to head into work. I have to pay for this house somehow, right?_

 _Don't forget that I love you, and that your TARDIS does too. Treat her right. She's a wonderful woman who deserves nothing but the best from you._

 _Goodbye, My Doctor._

 _Forever yours,_

 _Rose._

The Doctor read her note twice before letting it fall to the floor. Was she still going to push him back into the TARDIS and out into the universe – alone – without joining him? Just what part of their conversation last evening would make her think that he was going to leave her behind?

He huffed.

The _Curse of the Time Lords_ speech. Right.

He was of the mind to use his TARDIS to contact the Time Lord idiot and give him a damn decent talking to about this. Sure, he was very much that man when the speech was originally made, and the _dumping_ of ex companions had happened … But if _he_ was going to have to be the one to suffer the consequences of that speech, then by Rassilon, his father should have to hear about it, too, because there was no doubt in his mind that speeches like that would continue to happen, and hearts would continue to break at his hand.

…Even if that heart, or hearts, belonged to him.

He shook his head and let out a sigh. If he called the Time Lord now, then the Doctor would know that the both of them were back in this parallel – which meant that he'd start sniffing about and _accidentally_ dropping in from time to time to check up on them both.

Control freak.

He tapped his foot on the edge of the TARDIS floor and contemplated what to do while he waited for Rose to return from work. His TARDIS wasn't being as cooperative as he would have liked, so continuing to try and analyse the sample he got from Rose yesterday was out of the question.

He passed his look into the console room and gruffed. Damn meddling thing that she was. This machine _knew_ exactly what secrets Rose was keeping, and she wasn't giving any of it up at all. Never mind the 900-odd years of companionship he and the TARDIS had together, the ship was siding with Rose. Rose Tyler, who – while absolutely brilliant – didn't have the history with the Time Ship that he did.

He leaned against the doorframe and pursed out his lips in contemplation. Rose had mentioned that Jack Harkness had aided her during the time she had spent here in this Parallel while the TARDIS recovered. The pair of them were as tight as anyone. There was no doubt in his mind that if Rose had opened up to anyone, it'd be Jack.

Now. He dropped Jack off back in London, but he mentioned a quick hope back to Cardiff after a drink or few with Martha and Mickey…

The Doctor spun on his heel and jogged toward the console at the centre of the command deck. He slapped his hands together with a loud clap and held them together as he looked over the console. "So," he cooed out through a smile. "Fancy taking a short hope to Cardiff, dear?"

He leaned forward and flicked a lever with one hand as he twisted a dial with the other. He smiled up at the Time Rotor and gave a wink. "Bet you could do with a little rift energy, am I right?"

The rotor column pulsed and the Doctor dramatically leaned to one side to swipe up a lever in an exaggerated and showy manner. "Well, Allonsy, old girl. Let's go see Jack!"

~~oooOOOooo~~

Jack Harkness had his eyes locked hard on the display in front of him, looking over the brunette hair of Gwen, when the TARDIS materialised in the Torchwood main hub. He didn't react too much against the gusting winds and the howling whine of materialisation except to adjust the sound of the audio feed coming in from the field. He didn't even shift his eyes from the monitor when the front door creaked open, and the Doctor stepped outside.

"About time you got here," he muttered dryly as he pointed toward a secondary communication station at the side of the room. "You can set up over there. Computer's already warm, if it prompts you to use it, thepassword is _fabulous darling_ no spaces, no capitals."

The Doctor's eyes shot wide with surprise, but he gave Jack a nod and quickly dropped into a rickety desk chair that has most definitely seen better days. It rolled back slightly as his settled in the seat, but he gripped at the desk edge with his fingers to pull himself in comfortably. He was somewhat relieved not to have to type In anything about being fabulous in the password field, as the computer was already logged in.

"Okay," he called out. "What am I looking for?"

Jack didn't take his eyes from the monitor. Instead he leaned over Gwen's shoulder to increase the zoom on a camera on one of the headsets in the field. "Go into our database. I need all the information we've got in there about the Homm Heibygh."

The Doctor hummed. "Well. I don't need any rudimentary Earth databases to tell you about that group of degenerates," he stated with distaste.

"Try to keep the insult toward our planet and species out of it, Doc. I don't have time to deal with that garbage right now. I've got agents in the field going after that _group of degenerates_ , and I'd kind've like to know how to keep my people alive." He flicked a look toward him. "As I'm sure you are."

He nodded firmly. "Right. Of course. The Homm Heibygh are a species from the planet Pepylz in the Taucull Constellation…."

"Not interested in their history right now, Doc," he snapped quickly. "We can review their dosier when the job is done. Please just give me specifics that will keep Rose and Mickey alive."

The Doctor wuickly pressed his hands into the desktop and shoved himself up into a stand. "I'm sorry? Did you just say _Rose_ is out there with these … these _cretins_?"

"She's fine, Doc," he assured him gruffly. "Rose is very well experienced out in the field."

"Yeah," Gwen drawled with a smile. "One of the best I've seen… Absolutely fearless, she is."

"Oh really," the Doctor challenged facetiously. "Come up against the Homm Heibygh a few times, has she?"

Jack looked down his shoulder at the Doctor and let out a breath. "Not quite, but she's handled more than enough missions with my team that we're confident she'll get the job done and get out in one piece."

"Oh," the Doctor coughed. "You say that like she's been on your payroll for longer than a month."

Gwen looked at the Doctor with confusion and opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly shut down when Jack put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. He looked back toward the half-panicked half-Time Lord with an unreadable expression. "She's got experience from her own Torchwood days, Doctor. Not to mention the year that I had the privilege of travelling with the two of you. She's more than up to the task."

Jack looked back to the and ground his teeth a little with concern for his team on the other end of the video connection. "Tell me what we need to know, please."

"Give me their coordinates, and I'll get in there and help." He thumbed over his shoulder toward the Blue Box against the wall. "I've got the TARDIS. No sweat. In and out in no time."

Jack leaned forward to the mic and issued a stern order to Mickey and Rose. He straightened back up and shook his head at the Doctor. "Right now, they have it in hand. Tell me what will piss these guys off, and I'll make sure Micks and Rose won't do it."

The Doctor stepped up beside Jack and folded his arms across his chest. His cheek dimpled as he watched the movement on the twin monitors. "Not much will upset them too greatly, really," he huffed. "Mostly bark and no bite, but if the pair of them are still wearing residual artron from the TARDIS travel during the crucible, then there could be trouble." He drew in a deep breath. "Homm Heibygh are a time sensitive creature. Telepathic species, actually. They draw their power from the telepathic signatures of other time sensitive species. Time Lords - for rather obvious reasons – are among their favourite snacks."

Jack shuddered slightly, shared a look with Gwen, and then looked back toward the Doctor. "And you're asking me to send _you_ in to pick them up? Isn't that inviting more trouble than it's worth?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Not a concern, really. I no longer carry the Lindos hormone that's required for regeneration – which is what the Homm Heibygh hunger for. They will get quite aggressive in the presence of Artron thinking that it might trigger the release of Lindos, but the lower than typical residual presence that Rose or Mickey might have _could_ deter them."

Gwen paled, and Jack's breath hitched hard. The Doctor noticed their barely concealed panic and narrowed his eyes. "Unless there's a reason that their saturation would be higher than I'd expect?"

"I don't know what you're leading to with that question," Jack croaked in an attempt to mask his worry. "But considering that Rose was present for your aborted attempt at regeneration less than 15 hours ago, and that you're still probably very much saturated with it and have quite likely gotten pretty close with Rose…"

"A non-issue," the Doctor threw in quickly. "Rose and I are _not_ like that." He blew out a breath. "And quite likely never will if her resolve is as bullheaded as she is."

" _Her_ resolve?"

The Doctor swallowed thickly and glared toward the screen where Mickey's camera showed Rose's determined face in its peripheral field. "Well it's not mine."

"Well," Jack said with a smirk that held very little surprise, but quite a large dose of amusement. "Haven't the tables turned? Figured the moment you two got alone, you'd give her a smile and her panties would fall." He tapped Gwen on the shoulder. "Call in a retreat. Get her out of there, now. Ianto's on standby with a hopper, send him in to get her." He stepped away from the monitor and walked toward a cabinet to retrieve a hopper from one of the shelves. "I'll be right behind him.".

"I'll get her," the Doctor growled. "Me and TARDIS, in and out. Easier than peasy." He walked toward the box and turned back to point toward Jack as he walked. "Send the coordinates to my TARDIS computer – she'll give you access – and I'll go in and get them."

Gwen let out a sudden cry and her hands flew up to cover her mouth. "Jack! Jack, it's attacking her!"

Both the Doctor and Jack launched from their respective sides of the room to assemble with panic behind Gwen. Their expressions differed only in how well they portrayed their horror to see through Mickey's video feed, a thick and hairy ape-like beast lunging and swiping at Rose.

Rather than screeching in horror, as Mickey was, Rose held her forearms up to protect her face and glared toward Mickey's camera. The thick canvas material of her fatigue shirt spared her from the full brunt of the beast's attack, but the thick crimson-orange streaks of blood being cast off with each strike of the beasts claws showed that she wasn't completely immune to the attack.

She grit her teeth, hissed with pain, but held her composure enough to hold the animal's claws away from any more vulnerable areas.

"How do I kill it?" she demanded into her mic. "For God's sake, Jack, tell me how to kill this thing before it kills me first!"


	4. Saving Rose

A/N: This didn't go anywhere at all where I wanted it to go. Part of the reason for that is a lovely PM I got from LovelyAmberLight yesterday theorizing what she think might be coming in future chapters. I love the way her mind works and very quickly pinched one of her ideas (with her permission, of course ... I am not a complete thief), and kind've ran with it.

So the twist at the end is all her fault.

This is a longer chapter that got away from me ... but I hope you don't find it too incredibly boring.

Thanks.

GK

~~oooOOOOoo~~

"Rose! Hold on, I'm coming!"

The Doctor spun toward the TARDIS, but twisted to point toward Jack. "Harkness, you're coming with me." He looked at Gwen. "Tell her to kick at its shins. They're just as vulnerable there as humans are. It won't kill it, but it should back the brute off long enough for us to get there."

He stalked with furious purpose toward the rattling blue box against the wall. "Send the temporal and location coordinates to my TARDIS, and for God's sake, don't send anyone else in there." He crossed into his ship and continued to mutter to himself as he walked through the motions of dematerialisation. "IF they think someone's trying to take away their food, the damn thing will kill them all to get to her."

"Coords uploaded, Doc," Jack advised from across the console. I've set the time coordinates to land us just as the best begins its attack on Rose."

The Doctor nodded and gave the console edge a pair of firm slaps. "Okay, old girl. Do you have what I need, then? Old or new, Whatever you have on hand, I'll take it."

A small door flipped open on the top of the console beside a bicycle pump opened up, and a small cradle holding a blue-tipped sonic screwdriver rose from within. The Doctor smiled widely and snatched it from the cradle. "Oh. Yes! Absolutely perfect, my old friend." He kissed the tip of the screwdriver with an exaggerated _mwuhhh_ and popped it into a pocket in the liner of his blazer. "Right. Now. Let's go get Rose."

"She's going to be okay, Doc," Jack offered him confidently. "Trouble magnet that she is, that crazy woman can always pull through."

"Yeah." The Doctor nodded and leaned forward to twist a dial. He kept his eyes on the autonomous movements of his hands across the console rather than look up at him. "I'm not entirely pleased that you've put her out in the field, Jack."

"Well then it's a good thing that I'm not out to _please_ you, then, isn't it," he chirped in reply.

"Rose's safety is paramount," the Doctor warned darkly without lifting his eyes. "She's too important, and not anywhere experienced enough to be out there with …. Things … as beastly as _that_ without me."

"Someone's importance is subjective, really. Not everyone has the same opinion of her as you do." He backed up a step and held up his hands when the Doctor lifted darkened eyes toward him. "Not that I'm disagreeing with you, Doc. Rose is as important to me as she is to you, I'm just saying that in the grand scheme of this entire universe…"

"Without Rose in this Universe, I could singlehandedly destroy it…" He let that threat hang a moment and looked back toward the console to press at a flashing button. "And if that _animal_ kills her, you can bet that the entire constellation of Taucull will be obliterated at my hand. There's not a power in the universe that could stop me."

"Your Time Lord self, maybe." Jack defended. "He doesn't quite buy into the whole Genocide is a good thing retaliation."

He snorted. "Don't doubt for a second that he wouldn't offer me a hand doing just that."

Jack could see the shudder of rage within the Doctor's taut frame, and in his voice as he impatiently told his TARDIS to hurry. Jack also knew that there'd be no way to dissipate any of that fury until Rose was safe.

He had to try, though.

"Rosie's going to be fine," he assured him with a forced smile. "She's come up against bigger and uglier beasts than that one and made it out in one piece."

The Doctor's voice was calm, methodical. "TARDIS is breaking through the Vortex walls now. Hold steady for materialisation."

Jack's expression darkened. "Don't ignore me, Doctor. Rose has more experience than you're giving her credit for."

The Doctor's movement's stilled as his hand hovered over the materialisation lever. "And just _how_ much _experience_ does she have, Jack?"

"Enough that _you_ don't need to worry about her as much as you are," he shot back. "I get it. I'm scared for her, too. Rosie's one of the most important women I've ever had in my life. But I trust her, Doc. IT might be a good idea for to do the same." He leaned forward and pushed the materialisation lever for himself. "Especially if you want her to trust you enough to keep you around. Know one thing about Rose: She won't be a coddled, ordered around, or kept woman anymore, Doc. She's had enough of it. Especially from…" He cut himself short. "Never mind."

"Especially from _whom_?" the Doctor pressed angrily.

"No one," Jack growled. "It's really not your concern."

"I beg to differ," he challenged as he strode a single step toward Jack.

The TARDIS shuddered out the last of her materialisation and automatically threw open her doors. Immediately the shrieks of a terrified Mickey Smith and the pained cry of Rose filled the cavernous console room.

The Doctor and Jack both launched into a run. Side by side they exited the TARDIS and burst onto the grassy field. Neither man paused to exhibit shock at what was taking place in front of them. They immediately moved into battle mode and separated. The Doctor was the first to issue order.

"I'll distract it, Jack. You get Rose clear and take her straight to the infirmary."

"How do you propose to do that," he yelled as he squeezed of a pair of shots from his gun into the shoulder of the beast. It did nothing to stop the assault on Rose. "This thing is focused!"

The Doctor shook his hands in front of him. "I should have a little residual Lindos left from the regeneration," he seethed through gritted teeth. "And stop shooting it. Their hide is far too thick. All you'll do is risk shooting Ro - Oh yes!" He watched his hands begin to shimmer and ripple with pure Lindos energy. He lifted his hands to his face with a wide and manic grin. "You absolutely beautiful, stunning thing." He blew against his hands in the direction of the Homm Heibygh creature. "Oi! You great dumb brute. Hungry?"

Ahead, the noise stopped, and Rose's large and hairy attacked stopped short his assault. It lifted its nose to the air and sniffed hungrily.

"Yes, that's right," the Doctor called out with a ruble in his throat. "A great big old Time Lord feast, just waiting for you."

Rose staggered to a stand and clutched at her arms as she looked toward the taunting Doctor only a few metres away. "Doctor! What're you doing?"

"Offering up a smorgasbord," he called back with a grin. "And aren't I the most delicious dish on the table?" He sneered toward the beast, who had turned and was now looking toward the Doctor with hunger in its eyes. "That's right, you big ugly brute. Over here. I'm ringing the dinner bell, come and take a bite!"

"Doctor! Don't be so stupid!" Rose shrieked. "You can't regenerate, if you die, then you die. No second chances this time!"

"Oh have some faith," he called back with a smile. The smile fell and he looked toward Jack. "Harkness, get her into the TARDIS. Into the infirmary. I'll deal with this gigantic lump of filthy degeneracy."

Jack curled around the beast that had set its sights on the Doctor and snagged Rose's arm. "Come on, Rosie. Let's listen to the Time Lord and take shelter."

She snatched her arm away. "No! He's going to get himself killed!"

"He knows what he's doing," Jack argued back. "Now come on before you trigger, and that that beast changes its mind."

"But Jack…"

He tugged, and practically dragged her into the TARDIS, just as the beast took off toward the glimmering half-Time Lord. She heard the buzz of the sonic and then a terrified and defeated cry in her mind from the beast as the TARDIS doors slammed behind them.

"My God, Jack," she panted as she was dragged into the infirmary. "What the hell was that thing?"

He pushed her to sit on the edge of the gurney and dropped his gun on the floor. He wasted no time in snaring the dermal regenerator from the counter and returning to her side. "Doc called it a Homm Heibygh," he answered as he pulled up her arms and winced at the damage he could see through torn fabric. "Get your shirt off. We have to get this cleaned up before he gets back in here."

Rose nodded and tore at the front of her shirt. Buttons sprayed in between them. "Yeah, we better, I 'spose." She agreed as she scrambled to pull her arms free of the shirt.

He gasped when he saw the extent of the damage on her arms and at the shimmering amber light that was swirling within the wounds.. "Oh, Rosie. This is bad, really bad."

"You can fix it, right?"

He nodded. "You're body's already working its magic, but let's help it along. Doc'll freak if he sees this."

"Do you know anythin' about them, Jack?" she asked as she scrambled to pull her arms free of the shirt. "And why did it only come after me?"

"It feeds on temporal energy, I think he said. They particularly love the flavour of a Time Lord." He set the regenerator on to one arm and then swirled his finger through the glittering energy over her other arm. "This is what they're after, apparently. Lindos. It's what triggers regeneration in a Time Lord."

A panicked expression crossed Rose's face. "Then if there's one, there has to be more." Her breath shifted to a panicked pant. "Jack. We have to search and make sure there's no more of them. I couldn't fight it off. No matter what I did, that thing just kept coming back." She dipped her head to force him to look at her. "If they go after 'im, Jack… He … he's my responsibility… He's got no one else."

"I know," he breathed out on a breath full assurance as he moved along to her other arm. "Gwen heard everything. I'm sure she's already on it."

"Promise me," she breathed. "He has to be kept safe."

"I promise you that he will be, Rose."

The door to the infirmary burst open loudly, which make both Jack and Rose jump with alarm.

"Well that wasn't exactly a pretty thing to do," the Doctor announced with a look of disgust on his face. He brushed off his sleeves," but it was done. Jack, you need a cleanup crew in aisle two."

"Cleanup team is always on standby," jack assured with a shrug. "Don't imagine the mess you made is worse than anything else they've seen to this point."

"Yeah,' he drawled with an upturned nose. "You'd think so, but these Homm Heibygh. When they succumb to a Gallifreyan defense, they have a full …uhm … bladder, bowel, and stomach content release."

"Shit, piss, and vomit," Jack said with a shrug. "Nothing the lads haven't seen before."

The Doctor pursed his lips and nodded slowly. "Right. Well. It's a pretty big creature, Jack. Remember that when the reports come in from the field." He pursed his lips. "I imagine you might get one or two requests for time off or resignations when they're done."

Rose leapt off the gurney and approached the Doctor. Worry creased her face. "Are you okay, Doctor? Did he hurt you?"

"Oh," he sand out. "Fine and dandy. Nothing I couldn't handle, really. Dealt with those brutes more than once." He let his eyes pass over her chest and arms. "And it was a _she_ by the way. You can tell by the presence of the lower tusks and absence of any on the top. The males have both sets." He took her hand and led her back toward the gurney. "Now. I know that you didn't escape injury, was Jack able to get you all fixed up?"

Although his voice was jovial, Rose knew that inside her Doctor was panicked. The rapid movement of his eyes as he scanned every inch of her and the slight tremor in his hands was an obvious giveaway.

"I'm okay," she assured him softly as she presented her forearms to him for inspection. "Superficial damage for the most part. Subconscious, too, I guess. Gonna have a nightmare or two after that encounter, let me tell you!"

The Doctor nodded slowly as he let his eyes trail over her forearms. His brows creased with bafflement in how clean the area was given how much damage she seemed to have sustained during the encounter. "Clean," he mused to himself. "I thought…"

"Oh," Rose sang as she tugged her arms back and folded them across her belly. "Damage wasn't nearly as bad as it looked."

His brows were still tightly knitted together. "Absolutely clean. No redness or scarring at all."

Jack snorted behind him. "That's just because I'm damn good at what I do, Doc." He thumbed to the doorway knowing that neither Rose nor the Doctor were actually looking at him. "I'm going to go put to old girl into the vortex." He looked to Rose. "Did you want to head home; or back to Cardiff for debrief?"

As Rose answered _Cardiff_ , the Doctor replied with _home_. They immediately locked eyes to begin what Jack knew for sure was going to be a battle of their wills.

He rolled his eyes. "Up in the vortex, then. I'm sure Betsy here…" he petted the wall "would love a little bit of orientation time in the tunnel of time." With no answer from either of them, Jack sighed. He looked at the ceiling and smiled at the TARDIS. "Looks like it's just you and me for the next little while, sexy. Got any boardgames?"

Both Rose and the Doctor were polite enough to wait until Jack had left the room to voice their arguments toward each other. They were polite enough that they waited for each other to begin the conversation.

It was the Doctor who finally broke the silence. He kept his voice calm, but it was clear that he was barely hanging on the the restraint. "How long have you been working for Jack?"

"Long enough," she replied cryptically. "He has a good team, Doctor, and I'm safe with them."

"Which was absolutely obvious just now," he growled facetiously. "You had it all in hand out there today, didn't you? Didn't need your Time Lord at all to save you from being killed by one of the most filthy and degenerate species in the universe."

Rose reigned in her own hot retort. Instead she took a breath and awarded hi with one of her most appreciative looks – the one she honed and learned from many Christmas mornings receiving socks and hair brushes from her grandmother. "Thank you for your help," she said genuinely. "I suppose I was in a little over my head this time."

"I need to know how long," he asked a second time without acknowledging her thanks. "How long have you been with Torchwood. I'm thinking you've been part of that team and therefore on this Earth for much longer than the month you assured me it was last night."

She looked away from him to focus on the wall, the door, the floor. Anywhere except those sad and accusing eyes of his. "I've been leaping between parallels for years now, Doctor. I may have landed at different points of time throughout the years and helped Jack out here and there."

"May have," he clarified, "or Did." His eyes hardened. "The distinction is rather important."

Rose snorted. "The distinction between the two is neither important, nor any of your business. What I did during the moments that you believed I was on the other side of a dimensional wall is really none of your concern or business."

"Oh," he growled out. "I very much beg to differ on that, Rose. What you did while crossing through time streams and across dimensional walls is very _very_ much my business." He started to pace. "If you've done anything at all that can change the pathways of time, or damaged the walls, then it could be disastrous! I need to make sure so that I can repair any damage that you caused."

"Oh you pretentious prat," she bit back. "Don't you think for a second that I'm a bloody amateur at this. I know enough – more than enough – to not do anything that will damage the fabric of bloody time."

He huffed. "I hardly think the couple of years you spent travelling with me in the TARDIS in any way qualifies you to jump around time and dimensions like it is some playground funfair!"

"A couple," she growled under her breath. "Right. Not nearly enough time for me to know what I was doing…."

Suspicion raised its head again. "What are you hiding from me, Rose?"

"What makes you think that I'm hiding anything?"

"Are you?"

She let out a growl and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Right. I'm asking Jack to take me to Cardiff, and will finish up the debrief there. IF you want to head back to London or wherever, then go right ahead. Don't let me stop you."

The Doctor stepped in closer to her. "Then I'm coming with you," he warned. "If you're going to continue with this madness of working field for Torchwood, then I'm coming right along with you."

"There's no need, Doctor," she said with exasperation. "There are far more important things in this universe for you to worry about that making sure that I'm not getting into mischief. I promise you that my time travelling and dimension hopping days are over. No need to worry about my safety – "

"Your safety is my highest concern," he barked out incredulously. "It always has been." He walked in toward her and cupped at her elbows. "Don't you get it, Rose? Since the day I took your hand in the basement of Henriks, all I've wanted is to make sure that you're safe."

She inhaled a shaking breath. "I know, Doctor."

"You saved me, Rose," he vowed fiercely. "And I'm not talking about rescuing me from a vat of sentient liquid plastic, but saving me from myself. When I had nothing else in this entire universe, you gave me something, some _one_ to live for."

She seemed to shrink back from him a little. "Doctor…"

He lightly tightened his hold on her elbows, the effort to restrain himself from holding her more tightly forcing him to speak through his teeth. "You don't understand," he all that hissed. "How can you not understand how much you mean to me, Rose? What I become – what I am capable of when I lose you? I don't cope well when something happens to you."

She snatched herself free of his hold and took a long stride away from him. "Do you think I don't _know_ that, Doctor?" She growled back loudly. "Do you think I'm so damn blind that I can't see how much you lose control, and how angry you get, when you think I'm in trouble?"

"How could you?" he barked, throwing his hands in the air for dramatics. "You've never been there to see it?"

Frustration overtook her at that moment, and Rose quickly turned on him. "Haven't I, Doctor?" She stalked toward him and rose up onto her toes to bring herself as high as she could to put them at equal height. "I have spent _years_ jumping across your timeline, _years_ jumping from parallel to parallel. I've witnessed almost all of the branches of that stream, seeing every single decision you've made that directly affected you an' me. I've seen firsthand _exactly_ what you are capable of when I'm taken from you." She sniffed and rocked back down to flatten her feet on the floor. Anger fell to despair when she saw the horror inside his gaze, and her voice softened. "I've seen the lengths you'll go to … to …" She sniffed and shook her head. "No. Never mind." She petted her hands on his lapel and backed away from him. "Sorry. I didn't mean –"

He reached forward to grab at her arms to hold her in place. "What did I do, Rose?"

She slouched with indecision and regret and tried turning away from him. "It doesn't matter."

He more firmly grasped her arms, desperate for her to give him the answers he was looking for – to assuage the fear he had that something horrible had happened during her jumps. "It _does_ matter," he demanded. "It matters to me. What did I do to you?"

" _You_ didn't do anything, Doctor," she affirmed fiercely as she tried again to jerk herself away from him. "It wasn't you."

"An alternate me is still me, Rose." He shifted closer to her. His whole body trembled. "It's only my _decisions_ that branch that me off into another parallel. It's not a completely different me."

She looked up into his panicked face and gave him a weak smile. "But don't our decisions make who we are, Doctor? Once you've made that choice, you become a very different person." She sniffed. "Here, you decide to give the bad guy another chance for redemption, and you're a hero. There, you chose to destroy them all, and you become a murderer."

"What did I do?" he pleaded.

She lifted a hand to clutch at one of his and gently pried it off her arm. "I told you, Doctor, you didn't do anything." She smiled up at him. "You. You're my amazing Doctor who just happened to sprout out of the severed hand of another equally amazing man. You're making all of the right decisions…." She paused and swallowed thickly. "Except letting me go – which you need to do."

His voice softened to a croaked and emotion-filled whisper. "Because I _can't_."

"Well you _should_." She inhaled heavily, a rattled breath through a seizing throat. "For both our sakes."

He snapped his arms out and pulled her tightly into his chest. The tears that had dammed up against his lashes finally spilled free onto his cheeks. "I'm making a promise to you, Rose. I'm never leaving you. I've made my decision, and whether you want me around or not, I'm never going to leave you behind."

She allowed him to embrace her and nestled her nose into his chest. Her voice was pained and whimpered into his lapel. "You can't live up to that promise, because one day you will leave me behind, Doctor. And I can't bear that."

"I'm a new man now," he assured her.

Her reply was spoken so quietly that he only heard the breath used to make it rather than the words themselves. "And that's the problem."

Commotion at the doorway had both Rose and the Doctor pull from their reverent moment as one figure. They didn't immediately separate as a young man burst through the door and gasp toward them with panic in his manic blue eyes.

He caught sight of his quarry in the middle of the room and exhaled hard with relief. "Rose!"

She immediately pulled away from the Doctor and threw herself into the waiting arms of the tall young man. "Mark! Oh, my God. Mark. They found you." She pulled back only enough to assess his physical condition. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head, and his thick, deep auburn hair that was obviously months overdue for a cut rustled with the motion. "I should ask the same about you." HE motioned toward the door with a flick of his head. "They pulled me out of a lecture, told me you got into a scrape with a Homm Heibygh. Blimey, Rose, you have to be more careful. Why didn't you call me?"

She hooked her flyaway hair over her ear in a practiced movement of awkwardness and embarrassment. "Because it's exams, Mark. I didn't want to bother you."

"Well you should." He snapped her in for a hug against his chest and dropped his chin into her hair. His eyes met with those of the Doctor, and he blinked with what seemed to be unsure recognition. The look passed and he redirected his attention to the woman in his arms. "You're all I've got left, Rose. I've lost everything else."

She chuckled against his chest and pulled back. Both her hands lifted to cup his cheeks. She lifted up onto her toes to press a very facetious and condescending kiss to his forehead. "Oh you daft man. You've got plenty."

He smiled warmly at her. "Nothing as special as you, though." He smoothed down her hair. "Is everything all solved then?"

Rose nodded. "It is."

"Okay," he said with a beaming smile of white, and slightly crooked teeth. "So chips?"

Rose purred a happy sound in the back of her throat. "Oh, yes. Chips. I think I want chips."

He let out a booming laugh and threw his head back as he moved his arm across her shoulder. "Since when _don't_ you want chips?"

The Doctor watched the two of them leave the infirmary with raised brows and a pain in his chest. Confusion and betrayal rocked through him from chest to toes, and the emotion held him in place. He barely sensed the presence of Jack Harkness moving in beside him.

"Don't believe everything you see, Doc," he warned. "That's the absolute opposite of what you think it is."

The Doctor's voice was strangled. "And what might that be?"

"That she's moved on," he answered. "Look, Mark's a good kid…"

"He's a Time Lord," the Doctor growled out.

Jack breathed out a sound of disbelief. "Oh. So you can tell that _Mark_ is a Time Lord…"

The Doctor's lip curled, but he said nothing. "Who is he?"

Jack huffed. "Do me a favour. Rein in the jealousy. Mark is not someone looking to mow your lawn. He…" He huffed out a long breath. "Mark 's dad was dying when Rose found them. She vowed to his dad that she'd protect him, and she has. She took him to safety and has watched over him since. He's protective as all heck of her, Doc, but he's not a threat to you and Rose finally getting your shit worked out."

"Who is he?" the Doctor asked again. "Who was his father; is he one of the dangerous ones?"

"Not my place to say, Doc," he answered with a shrug. "But I will say this: Trust Rose. If you even _think_ about asking her to choose between the two of you. Right now – she'd choose _him._ "


	5. Revelations and Conversations

A/N: This was another one that got away from me. I felt that I needed to clarify a couple of things as I seemed to have confused some people about certain motivations and stuff ... Therefore, this chapter had to come in. I certainly hope that it clarifies a few things.

I'm off for the weekend and therefore won't have anything new to put up until early next week ... until then, my dears, I hope this monstronsity of a chapter can tie you over until then.

I certainly hope you enjoy.

~~~oooOOOooo~~~

When the Doctor finally left his TARDIS after performing some routine diagnostics on the old girl, and entered Rose's living room, he was met with a sight that he didn't quite expect to see. Rose was lounged across a long three-seater black leather couch with her heat atop a garishly pink fluffy cushion. Her legs stretched across to the other side of the couch, where Mark was seated quite happily rubbing at one of her feet.

The large 65" curved screen TV was on, and it's volume kept low. From what the Doctor could determine based upon the menu on the screen, the pair had initially opted to watch a Netflix original show. Lucifer, it seemed.

What a strange choice of show.

"You know," Rose said with a relaxed drawl. "The Doctor once told me that he met the Devil."

"I said no such thing," he remarked shortly as he pulled himself from a lean against the doorway and made his presence known. "I told you that we beat it, and that's all that mattered."

"Well, _this_ you was pretty guarded about it.." Rose arched her head backward, kicking Mark in the chest, to look back at the Doctor's entrance. She smirked at the upside down view of him that gave her a much more zoomed in vision of his crotch that she was wholly uncomfortable with, and then lifted her eyes to his face, looking directly up into that sharp nose of his.

"Welcome to the party, Doctor," she said with a genuine smile. "Everything okay with the TARDIS?"

He flopped into a leather recliner that matched the couch that Rose and Mark were currently occupying, and looked toward Rose with an expression of question. "So you encountered a _me_ that was a little more open about it?"

Mark chuckled. "Met a few of them," he joked as he snatched Rose's foot to go back to his massage. "Rose has some stories that'll—"

"Mark," Rose growled in warning. "Now's not the time."

Mark rolled his eyes. The Doctor leaned forward in his chair. He snatched a handful of popcorn from a bowl on the table and thumbed a single puff into his mouth. "I'd say right now's a good time, Rose."

"No," she sang softly. "It's been a long day and I'm really not in the mood to rehash past adventures." She looked to Mark. "Although the description of Satan that I was given is vastly different to the handsome fellow in _this_ show."

"More horns and sharp teeth," the Doctor agreed with a nod. "Unpleasant creature, really."

Mark's brows lifted. "So you're thinking that it was the devil?"

"Nah," he drawled. "Just your run of the mill telepathic beast with nefarious intentions." He brought his fist to his mouth and threw in a few more puffs of popcorn. He lounged back in the chair. "He got into the minds of the people on the planet above and drew out their greatest fear to give them the most evil being he could muster to take control. Humans. Easy target. No real telepathic ability in that species. No ability means no development means no shields and easy access for a hunter against his prey."

Rose sighed. "I really don't like my people being referred to as a _species_ , you know."

"I make no apologies for it, Rose." He shrugged. "Like it or not, the humans are a species – just like every other creature in the universe."

"In its most clinical terms," Mark said with a chuckle.

"Speaking of clinical," Rose said brightly. "How's Med School treating you? Ready to become a Doctor?"

The Doctor's eyes lit up. "Oh! You're training to be a doctor? How brilliant." He grabbed another handful of popcorn and fisted them into his mouth. "My friend, Martha, was in school to become a Doctor." He purred happily. "Such a brilliant girl, Martha Jones. Such a bright future ahead of her."

"Feisty as, too," Mark replied with a wide grin.

"Oh?" the Doctor sang with curiosity. "You've met her?"

"Sure did," he chirped. "I've never met someone as brave as her…" he peeped when Rose gave him a playful kick. "Except you, Rose. Really. Was that necessary? My complete and utter admiration for you and everything you do is planets above anyone else. You know that." He shook his head at the Doctor. "Such a jealous little thing, our Rose, isn't she?"

He thumbed at the side of his mouth. "She can be."

"Yeah, and like you don't have the same streak in you, Doctor," Rose chipped back. She looked up into Mark's amused expression. "You should see the bottom lip stick out and himself get all broody if he thinks he's not the smartest one in the room."

The Doctor snorted. "Have yet to encounter such an atrocity, thank you, Rose Tyler."

"Or maybe when he thinks someone knows something he doesn't," Mark added cheekily. "Which is just like my Genetics and Human Behaviour lecturer at UCL," he moaned. "Guy's the biggest narcissist I've ever encountered.."

"You probably need to get out more," Rose said with a giggle. "This planet's teeming with narcissists that would give old Benton a run for 'is money."

"The multiverse is overflowing with them," the Doctor mused with a shrug.

Rose sighed on a high note. "Don't I know it?"

The Doctor looked toward Mark, his eyes narrowing when the young man switched from one of Rose's feet to the other and began to knead at it. "So, Mark. You're a Time Lord."

Mark nodded, but didn't lift his eyes from Rose's foot. "I am."

"Loomed on Gallifrey?"

Mark shared a look with Rose. He waited for her to give him a tiny nod, and then looked to the Doctor. "No. Gallifrey was already gone by the time I was _loomed_."

The Doctor's eyes pinched and a furrow appeared between his brows. "So is there a Gallifreyan birthing Loom somewhere out there?"

"Nope," Mark answered with a sharp pop on the P. "Non Gallifreyan technology. I was a bit of an accident.."

"You were _not_ an _accident_ ," Rose shot in almost angrily. "Your creation, while unexpected, was by no means an _accident_." She glared at him. "I never want to hear you refer to your looming as an accident ever again, understand?"

"Yes, mum," he drawled in a long suffering manner.

"Mum?" the Doctor squeaked in an octave very unbecoming of a proud Lord of Time. "Rose is your _mother_?"

Mark and Rose both burst into laughter. "Oh. Oh, God, no," Rose huffed out.

Mark thumbed toward Rose. "Nah. I just call her that to get a rise out of her every time she gets all maternal bossy on me. She does the whole _yes dad_ thing with me, too, when I bark an order at her."

The Doctor pointed toward him, relief on his face. "You shouldn't be barking anything at her."

"Says the King of _Do as you're told_ ," Rose chuckled.

"Right," the Doctor muttered with a pout. His eyes flicked to Mark. "So. Your looming?"

Mark's mouth dropped open and he breathed out a long breath through his mouth that produced an extended _ahhhh_ sound. He then rubbed at the back of his head and let one side of his face crease up in a half wince. "Bit of a story, that. My Dad and his friends landed on a planet caught up in war. Dad being Dad – well, dad being dad according to Rose at any rate – got involved to end it…"

Rose hummed. "Well. It's not like your dad just heads off with the intent to interfere, Mark. He many just finds himself in the middle of chaos and has no choice but to intervene…"

The Doctor's brow pinched. "Sounds awfully familiar."

"Anyhoo," Mark sang with a sigh. "Long story short, after making me feel like an unwanted sack of meat for the bulk of his adventure, Dad saved the day. Oh, Amy gave him a right talking to about how much of an insensitive dick he was being, and how dare he treat me like I was nothing."

Rose rubbed at his arm. "That floppy haired daft man was just blindsided by suddenly becoming a dad to a fully grown Time Lord," she cooed gently. "He begged me to take care of you, Mark. He made me vow to protect you and never leave you alone. He loved you."

"Oh, probably," he said with a sigh. "Took him a bit to come 'round. Amy really didn't let up on him. That woman and Martha – oh what a combination of fire and electricity they were!" He looked toward the Doctor with a sad smile. "I've no doubt he had high expectations of me, and what I should become. Something tells me that grounding myself on Earth and becoming a Doctor isn't quite what he had in mind."

Rose rubbed at his arm. "He'd be so proud of you, Mark. Just like I am."

Mark shrugged. "Pretty basic by comparison to him, though. He was a legendary traveller, admired by worlds and galaxies all across the cosmos. Me? Just a doctor in training, admired by someone who has a boo-boo that needs fixin'."

Rose sat up and folded her arms across her chest. Her expression was one of admonishment, and her voice deep and firm to mach. "Your dad was all those things, yeah. But he was more'n that. Your dad loved the universe, and he loved its peoples. He sees the potential in them, and encourages them to reach that potential. He takes their hand, shows them who they can be; proves to them that they are _brilliant_ in their own rights." She smiled an expression of adoration. "It doesn't matter if you're a traveller, adventurer, a hero, a doctor, or a nurse, a shop girl. He honestly admired them all. I promise you that he'd be proud of you, Mark. So proud." she looked toward the Doctor who looked upon her with an expression of confusion. "Don't you think so, Doctor?"

The Doctor swallowed and nodded his head. "Yeah," he breathed. "Yeah. I you were my son, I'd be very proud of you." He looked down into his lap, and flicked off a piece of popcorn that had fallen. "Back when I was young and at the Academy, my one desire was to become a medical Doctor." He smiled, but kept his head down. "It was all I wanted to be, and I worked hard for it."

He lifted his head and gave them both a sad smile. "My family were political. They wanted me to get a council position. They thought that being a mere doctor was beneath me, and I was ultimately removed from my house because of it." He firmed up his features. "So that all said, whatever my son or daughter wanted to be: As long as they worked hard to achieve it, were good to others, and became the best version of them they could possibly be, they'd have my pride and my full support."

Rose's smile stretched wide. Mark's expression was incredibly emotional.

The Doctor shrugged. "But. Well. I didn't know him, so who knows. He was a Time Lord. They're not exactly known for being full of pride and love toward their loomlings."

Rose let out a rough groan. "You know, Doctor, it might be good character development for you to try and end your conversations just one sentence earlier…" She shook her head and rose from the couch. She was still seemingly annoyed as she brushed down her thighs. "And on that note, I'm heading upstairs to bed. It's been a long day, and I'm exhausted."

Mark grabbed at her arm to stop her when Rose reached down to the table to start collecting the used cups and bowls from its top. "Don't worry about it, Rose. I've got it. You head on upstairs."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "I think I remember how to load a dishwasher." He tipped his head to one side toward the Doctor. "I reckon between me and him, we can figure it out. You know, being the brilliant Lords of Time and all that."

She cupped his chin in her hand and pressed her lips to his forehead. "Cheeky boy." She pulled back and gave him a wink. "Don't stay up too late tonight binge watching Netflix and eating junk food."

"You're really taking the fun out of living, you know," he snarked back playfully.

"Goodnight," she countered with a smile. "And I love you."

"You too, Princess," he called back cheekily as she walked toward the Doctor.

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. She looked down to the Doctor seated on the chair and offered him a smile. "Don't you dare encourage binge viewing and snacking." She lifted a finger when he saw fit to argue with incredulity that he would never. "I know you, Doctor. Don't teach him your bad habits."

"Is this where _I_ say _yes mum_?"

She snorted. "Try it and see what happens." She then steeled her expression. "Will you be here tomorrow?"

"I'll be here," he promised softly as he took her hand and brought it to his mouth. "I'm not going anywhere."

Rose nodded, waited until he took his lips from her hand and drew it back toward herself. She cradled that hand gingerly as she turned to walk up the stairs. She called out a last goodnight to the pair of them and then closed the bedroom door behind her.

As soon as the click of the latch was heard by both men, they immediately cast off their relaxed and jovial positions and sat up straight. Both men shifted to face the other.

"Right," Mark spoke first, his voice calm yet firm. "Now that Rose is out of ear shot, I think it's time you and me had a talk."

The Doctor's eyes pinched and he gave a firm nod of agreement. "Right. I was thinking the exact same thing, myself, actually."

"Good," Mark stated. "I'll go first. What are your intentions with Rose?"

The Doctor wanted to laugh. His voice shifted to amused incredulity. "Are we really going to engage in _that_ talk?"

Mark's eyes flashed and ne nodded. "Oh, you bet your entire set of regenerations we are."

The Doctor snorted. "Don't have any left."

"It's the principal of it," Mark huffed with a roll in his yes. "Look. Rose means the whole universe to me. She saved my life – and the lives of Amy and Rory – when we had no hope. She's protected me and help me navigate in a new universe." He leaned forward and set his elbows on his knees. His hands hung in the space between. "You – and variations of you – have hurt her repeatedly in the years she was looking for you. Through your ignorance, lack of tact, being too overbearing and controlling, or simply abandoning her, she's been hurt too many times." He paused to see the shock on the Doctor's face before continuing. "And that stops now."

The Doctor's eyes flashed open with horror. "I would never do that to her."

"Yeah," he drawled. "But you did. Parallel through parallel, Rose met you and your parallel selves. Desperate she was to find you. Helplessly in love, and willing to follow you without question." He paused and then took a breath and lowered his voice. "Not all of you were as honourable and upstanding as you're claiming to be right now." He flicked a hand at him. "Hell, even _this_ you had a penchant for treating her with as much importance as a doormat on the floor of the TARDIS from time to time."

The Doctor leaned forward in a mirror of Mark's posture and sneered through a curled lip. "I would _never_ treat Rose as _anything_ less than the most important person in my lives."

"Yeah," Mark said with a laugh of challenge as he sat back in the chair. "You've got a mind that never forgets, Doctor. Think back over the time from your last regeneration until now, and you tell me that you always held Rose higher than you – that you never left her behind. Tell me that you didn't flirt around, walk away from her, and leave her alone to face the whims of your enemy." He smirked. "I've got time. Think about it."

"I don't need to," the Doctor growled. "Everything I did was because I had to – because timelines and their protection needed it. Admittedly I may have sometimes acted a little impulsively, but each time Rose and I made it through. Stuff of Legend, Shiver and Shake. Rose Tyler and the Doctor."

Mark had to chuckle. "You know, I found that quote in one of the Torchwood databases one day. I search when I wanted to learn more about who my father was. I stumbled on the following quote: _You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views_." He tilted his head at the narrowing in the Doctor's eyes. "Tell me, Doctor, do you still believe that?"

"I was quite young and stupid when I said that," he remarked coolly. "But yes, I still believe those words quite vehemently."

"Right then," Mark said with a smirk as he leaned back heavier into the couch cushion. "Sleep on it, then. Come back to me tomorrow. According to Jack, I'm probably going to be holed up here until they can confirm that the damn Homm Heibygh you lot encountered today was a one-off deal. So I've got time to pick up this line of conversation again once you've realised that you can be a right dick when you want to be."

"Does Rose know you talk this way, Mark?"

He smirked and extended his arm across the back of the couch. "Where do you think I learned it?"

The Doctor actually smiled at that. "Have you met Jackie? Woah, that woman has a razor for a tongue."

Mark's demeanour quickly shifted to one of regret and sorrow. "No," he breathed out. "I never got that chance. Rose…" He blew out a breath. "There'd be too many questions and suspicions, and ultimately danger for Rose if she showed up with me in tow. As it was, Rose was already being watched closely by the Torchwood board with suspicions that there was more to her than she was letting on."

The Doctor straightened at that, but he quickly dropped back down into a lean. "She was in danger?"

He shook his head. "Not initially. Rose Tyler was as Rose Tyler as she ever was before she began jumping. A feisty and dedicated, fiercely loyal human all hell bent on a singular mission: To find the love of her life and return to her life of travelling." He let out a breath. "Once she started jumping, however, well. The Torchwood heads got it into their minds that Rose was changing."

"Was she?"

Mark lowered his head and gave it a shake. He inhaled a breath and looked back up at him. "They sent some additional agents through the void here and there without Rose." He shuddered. "None of them made it back with their sanity intact. A couple didn't make it back in one piece." He inhaled and exhaled long and slow breaths. "Rose, she never had any negative effects from the trip. Never. Always back and forth with no trouble."

The Doctor tilted his head curiously. That was rather odd, when he considered it. A Dalek's mind was obliterated during an unprotected trip through the void, not even its thick Dalekanium armour could protect it. There was a pathway through the void during the Canary Wharf, protected by the warriors of the Cybermen, which protected Mickey and Pete during that battle. But since then? No. Travel through the void – unscathed - is only possible… He nodded his head with exaggerated movements. No. Unprotected travel _couldn't_ be possible. Ever.

"It bends the mind a little, doesn't it, Doctor?" Mark said with a rueful smile, knowing what questions must have been running through the Doctor's mind. "Torchwood had the same concerns. When they couldn't get anyone else except Rose through the void, then they started to question what she was."

The Doctor lifted his eyes. "And what is she?"

"She's Rose Tyler," Mark answered simply. "Bloody brilliant is what she is." He smirked. "Rose always carried they TARDIS key when she jumped. It was her method of finding her way to you. The TARDIS – whichever TARDIS happened to pick up the signal – would extend a telepathic arm and bring her to you. Protecting her while it did." HE pursed his lips. "Shame that it wasn't always the _right_ Doctor, nor always one that wasn't completely batshit crazy, but she was cradled by the TARDIS every time."

"I see."

"And I'm real glad for it, let me tell you," he sang with a laugh. "Because if Dad's TARDIS hadn't captured her when it did, then I'd still be trapped with Amy and Rory with no damn clue about how to get them home."

"So," the Doctor breathed out. "About your father…"

Mark smirked to one side. "It's killing you not knowing which Time Lord sired me in a loom, isn't it?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I'm not going to deny it."

"Well. The identity of my Dad really isn't all that important," Mark offered. "And you really, truly _don't_ want to know who he is. What I will say is that my Dad loved Rose more than time itself. I only got to see them together for a few moments after he got shot. Rose appeared and any fear he had immediately vanished, he reached for her and thanked Rassilon for allowing him to see her one last time, and to tell her …" emotion welled up in the back of his throat. "He told her he loved her, and that after he lost her he was never whole, never ever again. He then asked her to look after me. Told her that there was no one else he'd want to protect his child than her."

He lowered his head. "They kissed, and he passed on." He blew out hard through his lips. "Rose was inconsolable when he died. She begged him to regenerate, over and over again, but he couldn't. He was on his last life."

The Doctor's voice was heavy with as much emotion as Mark. He sniffed a wet sniff and looked up at the lad. "Tell me something, Mark."

The young man looked up. "I'll try. I'm fairly limited on what I am and am not allowed to tell you."

"I see," he replied softly. "Can you tell me this, then? Your Time Lord father. Is he me?'

Mark was silent for a long moment. It was clear this was a question he wasn't supposed to answer.

The Doctor took that opening and ran with it. "I'm going to take that as a yes. Not that it was really all hard to deduce, I am quite clever. Most of the details match up with my own recollection of that moment in time in this parallel." He pressed his lips tightly together for a moment and lifted his eyes to the ceiling. "Of course it sounds like your father was a later incarnation than I was when I ended up on Messaline, but everything else seems to match up – excluding Rose's arrival, of course."

Mark blinked, but didn't say anything.

"In this parallel, my child was actually female. Jenny. Jenny her name was." He grinned. "And she was _brilliant_."

"What happened to her?" Mark asked with a broken whisper.

The Doctor's thrill dropped. "She died. The bullet was meant for me, but she stepped in front of me at the last second and was hit. Born a soldier and died a hero." He lifted his eyes to Mark and held out his hand in greeting. "So. Let me introduce myself to you properly, Son. I'm the Doctor, and I'm your dad."

"Brother," Mark corrected with a sniff as he took the Doctor's hand for a firm shake. "Rose says your closer to a brother than my actual father." He then grinned. "Which means that I can still give you the firm talk and expect you to listen."

The Doctor nodded. "Fair enough."

He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "So. The rules – and yes, there are rules." He held up a finger. "One. If Rose says to back off and leave her alone, then it's in your best interests to do just that. Rose's a straight shooter. She's not going to pretend she doesn't want something when she actually wants it. If she says 'no' then she damn well means 'no'."

"And if she's telling me to leave; to take the TARDIS and run?"

Mark shrugged. "Then do it."

"Excuse me?" the Doctor barked. "Are you seriously suggesting that I get in my TARDIS and just leave?"

Mark's brows lifted and he nodded. "Yeah, pretty much." He let his brows fall. "Look. Rose and me are symbiotically linked to that TARDIS. If we need her, then she's coming to us – no matter what you're up to or where you want to go. So no mind to us at all. Get in your TARDIS, and get back out there."

"Why in the name of Rassilon would I leave her, Mark," he snapped in disbelief. He hit at his chest with his palm. "I am trying to prove to Rose that I _won't_ leave; that I'm here for her until the end of both of our lives. If I take off now, then I'm no better than the idiot who left us on the beach in the first place."

"That _idiot_ ," Mark snarled, " _Is_ my dad. He's _my_ dad, and he's also apparently _yours_. He's also the man that Rose Tyler loves beyond all others. The man who dumped her off on a desolate beach after she'd tirelessly spent the last three quarters of a century looking for."

" _How_ long?!"

Mark waved him off. "Give or take, bouncing around timelines and parallels. You'd have to expect that she'd have a bit of a margin of error."

"Margin of error," the Doctor boomed out with utter disbelief through lifted lips and narrowed eyes. "Rose told me it had been around five years since she saw me last. There's a pretty big bloody variance between five and seventy five years."

Mark's eyes blew wide. His mouth gaped a moment and he forced out a cough. "Oh. Blimey. Did I mix up Centuries and decades again?" He rolled his eyes in a rather dramatic fashion and shook his head. "You'd think that a lord of time and medical student would be able to get that distinction correct. My bad. Yeah. I'd personally put her travels at around seven years, but if she's saying five, then it was five." He quickly held up a finger. "But that doesn't negate what I was saying about the Time Lord still swanning about in this parallel without Rose in his TARDIS. She spent a hell of a lot of time looking for him, only to get dumped back off on the beach."

"He did what he thought was best for her," the Doctor defended. It was clear that he was getting agitated. "He gave her part of himself, and allowed her to have her parents, her friends and family."

"Oh please," Mark groaned. "How the Hell would he – or you – know what was best for Rose? You never even stopped to have a conversation with her to find out about life in the parallel world. You were all just _Well hi Rose, long time no see. Gimme a sec while I try and regenerate here. Oh dear. Daleks. Let's sort this out then. Oh yes, look at us, let's all sing_ We are the Champions _while I take each and every one of you home. Here you are Rose, Parallel world. Now you're home. Take care of this awfully dangerous clone of mine because while he needs you, I apparently don't anymore, I've got Donna now…and yes while you're distracted. I'm off. No good byes of course, I do hate those."_

"That is a very disgusting and over simplified version of events," the Doctor growled.

"Why?" Mark asked with his brows set high and his eyes wide. "Did I forget anything? Was there a moment when your full Time Lord self took a moment to ask Rose what she really wanted? Hmmmm? He made sure everyone else went where they wanted to go, but was very careful to make sure that Rose was well and truly locked out of his life."

"It was not that simple," the Doctor growled, launching out of his chair to loom over the top of Mark, who merely smirked as he looked up into the furious face of the Tenth Doctor.

"Probably not, Doctor," he answered calmly. "I reckon he made the most foolish, stupid, and cruel decision of his many lives – if my father's own sorrow was anything to go by." He slowly drew himself to a stand, which leveled him eye to eye with the Doctor. His voice was calm, but full of warning. "But while this whole affair, and every decision made makes perfect sense to you – it doesn't to Rose. She spent all of that time, and immeasurable heartbreak – including taking over the responsibility of your son – and he just jumped her off without a second thought. He found himself someone else and simply didn't want her around anymore. The novelty had worn off."

"You're lucky I'm not a lesser man," the Doctor seethed into his face. "I should punch you in the face for that comment. I've never been so insulted in my lives."

"And neither has she," Mark responded quietly, and with calm. "But I don't expect you to see if from her perspective. Not when you're so blinded to your own damn needs and desires that anyone else's doesn't matter."

The Doctor took a step back, his eyes wide. Insult was all over his face.. "I'm sorry?"

"You need to grow up a little," Mark advised with a shake in his head. "Think about someone other than yourself. Analyse who you've been, who Rose made you become, and who you turned into when she wasn't around to catch you. And while you do that, analyse this entire incarnation's timeline. Look at it from Rose's perspective, and you tell me if you deserve that magnificent woman's love."

"That's an easy answer," he growled. "I never deserved it."

"Obviously you did, or she wouldn't have fallen in love with you to begin with." He leaned forward. "You know when it happened for the two of you, Brother. When it was that the two of you first fell in love." He tipped his head in a tic to one side. "And you also know at what point you began to take her love for granted."

The Doctor looked off to one side, but said nothing.

Mark thrust his hands into his jeans pocket, stretching his arms enough that it lifted his shoulders. "Him leaving her on the beach like he did after everything she went through for him, it half destroyed her. She put up with a lot from all of those _you's_ that she encountered on her travels – so much – and so to have him cast her off like he did when she finally made it to him." He shrugged. "Well it's going to take some time."

"How do you expect me to prove to her that I'm never going to do that to her again, if I take off in the TARDIS?"

"By bein' there when she calls," he answered easily. "By listening to what she wants for a change, rather than what _you_ want. She's bruised, and she's raw, Doctor. She loves you, and she hates you at the same time. The more you push her, the more she's going to fall into old habits and ignore the bad parts for the little scraps of good that you're willing to throw her way."

The Doctor's voice dropped to a whisper. "I never did that."

"Yeah, you did," Mark corrected.

He lifted his eyes. "And how would you know? You were never there for any of it."

"Rose told me," he said with a roll in his shoulder. "Been together a lot, me and Rose. We talk – a lot."

"There are three sides to every story, you know."

"Yours, mine and the truth," Mark recited. "Yes. I know." He cleared his throat and looked up at the clock on the wall. "But you're not actively proving any of it wrong by being pushy and demanding, are you? Rose has secrets, yeah, pretty big ones actually, but those secrets are hers and hers alone. You've got no right to demand to know what they are. This is also her home. She wants you out, then you leave."

The Doctor's entire demeanour was clearly shifting to rejection, and he looked completely lost.

Mark very uncomfortably took a hand from his pocket to set it on the Doctor's shoulder. "Rose loves you, Doctor. More than you could ever possibly comprehend or appreciate. But she's also really confused right now. She's had so much purpose for so many years, and now she feels that that purpose was for naught, and that she's got nothing." He cringed. "It's not right; I know it's not, but she doesn't. At least not right at this point. It's raw. So just give her some space, okay?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah. I guess some internal reflection and the space to learn about this new biology of mine might be a good thing."

"I'll be here," Mark promised. "I'll keep an eye on her."

The Doctor blew out a breath. "Yeah. Thanks." He stood up and thrust a hand into his trouser pocket. With reluctant strides he walked to the breakfast counter and pulled a message pad and a pen from the corner. He spent a short moment scribbling a note, and then dropped the pen on the table. Backing up a step or two before tipping his fingers to his temple in a small salute gesture to Mark. "I'll be off then."

"Yeah, Doctor," Mark answered with a smile. "I got her."

He watched he Doctor leave the room, and in short time heard the whine and wheeze of the dematerialising TARDIS. Once that sound had gone, Mark looked over to read the note left for Rose.

 _Rose._

 _This is not goodbye, it's a see you later._

 _I love you. Please don't ever forget that._

 _If ever you need me, I'll be here. I promise you._

 _All of my love to you, across all time and space._

 _The Doctor._

 _xx_


	6. The Morning After

A/N: This is only a short one... Got kind've busy today. Which is cool.

I hope you enjoy!

~~~oooOOOooo~~~

Rose Tyler slowly lumbered down the stairs toward the kitchen. She'd woken only ten minutes earlier and had only made the effort to use the washroom and pull on a robe. Her hair was a mess having slept with her hair tied back into a rough braid. Wisps of hair fall crookedly around her cheeks and ears, and the braid was now decidedly off-centre and even skewed…

…But Mark felt that she looked downright adorable anyway. He gave her a huge toothy smile as quickly prepared a coffee in the Keurig.

"Morning Princess," he called our cheerfully as she slowly navigated the stairs in socked feet that hadn't been pulled up since she probably pulled them on after her shower last evening.

"Shut up," she mumbled grumpily. "I hate you."

He chuckled as he poured in a shot of milk and stirred it with a spoon. "Leading with _shut up,_ rather than _I hate you_ ," he mused with amusement, "must mean that my Rose Tyler is in a rather better mood this morning than usual."

She slapped him against the chest with the back of her hand and snatched the coffee from his fingers. She held the mug with both hands as she leaned her rump against the counter and took a sip.

"Well," he groused playfully. " _That's_ the thanks I get for so politely making you a coffee…"

Rose grinned over the rim of her coffee. "Imagine if you hadn't, yeah?"

"Oh," he breathed out with wide eyes and a shudder. "Well. It could have gone positively homicidal."

"Then it goes to prove that my little baby Time Lord is a clever one, doesn't it?"

"More likely he's into self-preservation," he countered with faux seriousness. "And there's nothing _baby_ about me. I'm nearly 30!"

Rose chuckled into her coffee.

Mark made a show of lifting a spoon and admiring his own reflection. "Now. If you wanted to revise the final consonant and switch to a vowel, then I can buy in. I am, after all, a bit of a babe."

"Definitely Time Lord then," Rose said with a chuckle. "And definitely the spawn of the Doctor. No humility with you, at all."

"Ahhh," he sang with a shrug as he dropped the spoon into an empty mug on the counter. "If you've got it, why not embrace it?"

"Next regeneration," she cursed darkly. "May you be a gruff old man with warts on his face and wrinkles on his butt. May your hair be all straggly and stringy and your teeth yellow and black."

"You'd still love me, regardless, so your curse upon my good looks means nothing."

"Except for your ability to snare yourself a girl to cheer up those otherwise lonely nights."

"Ahhh," he sang out. "Well then. As you're the one who cursed me, you'll be sharing the couch with me on all those lonely nights watching terrible rom-com movies and lamenting how neither of us can find dates over tubs of rocky road icecream…"

"What makes you think I can't find a date?" Rose barked incredulously.

Mark's eyes widened. "Well. There are a couple of answers I can give to that question, but seeing as you're not even halfway through your coffee yet, I believe the safest option will be to say _What's good for the gander is good for the goose. I will hereby curse your next regeneration as you have done mine._ " He grinned cheekily. "So either you lift your unnecessary curse, or you can live the next one as a wiry haired wart witch with me."

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'm stubborn enough, you know, to become just that just to spite you."

He pursed his lips and nodded for a few seconds before he responded. "Yep, that you are, Princess. That you are. But I love you anyway."

"Love you too." Rose tipped a shoulder and bit on the rim of her mug. She lifted her eyes to Mark to implore him to answer a question that she didn't want to ask. "So?"

"So, _what_?" he queried curiously, pretending for the world that he wasn't completely reading her mind through those incredible amber-brown eyes of hers.

"H-How did it go," she questioned with a stutter on a quiet voice. "Last night. With…"

Mark looked toward the digital clock on the microwave. "Less than six minutes," he stated with mirth. "I must say, your patience is improving. I expected you to push me for those answers at least three minutes ago."

"I haven't yet begun to _push_ ," she warned darkly.

He held up his hands. "Where are we with your coffee? Are we at the _you may speak now_ line, or are we still at _be wary_?"

"Mark." It was a warning.

"Right, right," he breathed out with a nod of his head as he patted the air in front of him with open palms. "Continue to cage the beast." He inhaled deeply and then huffed out his breath through his nose. It wasn't done with any annoyance of anger, but with thought as to how to begin with what happened last evening.

Rose decided to give him a starting point: "He's gone," she stated without emotion.

Mark nodded. "Yeah. Under duress and plenty of protest, mind, but he's gone." He let one side of his mouth twist up into a regretful smile. "Can't be sure how long he's going to stay gone, of course, but for now you've got some breathing room."

Rose exhaled a shaking breath. "What did you tell him?"

"Not what you didn't want revealed," he assured her with a firm voice. "In fact I told him to back off on looking for answers on the secret little nugget that you're hanging on to. Told him it was none of his business, so stop asking."

"And how did he take that," she queried softly.

"Bout as well as you'd expect," he answered with a shrug. "I don't know that it deterred him as much as further piqued his curiosity. Which, if what you've told me about him is correct, will only serve to make him more of a pain in the arse about finding answers."

Rose shook her head. "He can never find out."

"He's going to find out eventually," Mark stated with a tilt of his head. "And something tells me he'll take it a lot worse finding out by accident than he would if you out and told him about it." He gripped his hands against the counter and rested his rump against them. "He's a former Time Lord, Rose. He's not going to think any less of you or be put off because you're…"

"No," she snapped. "No, he won't. But we tell him about this, then he's going to want to know how; what happened to make his _human_ Rose Tyler become a regenerating lady of time." She looked at him with wide and horrified eyes that were starting to rim with tears. "And he can never find out."

"Why not," Mark queried with a furrow in his brow and genuine curiosity. "Why would it be such a bad thing for him to know that what you are is because of him?"

Rose offered him a look of absolute and utter condescension. "Are you _really_ asking me that?" she asked flatly. "Knowing what you know about him, and the fact that he carries more guilt that a Scottish Protestant? Trust me when I say that he would bloody blame and probably martyr himself over this somehow."

"Well maybe he _should_ be made to feel guilt, Rose," Mark boomed with frustration. "What that version of him did to you was abhorrent and cruel."

"His little Science experiment," she sighed with a wince.

"And captive, Rose."

Rose hooked her hair over her ear and dropped her eyes to the floor as she set her now empty mug on the countertop. "That him just wasn't in a good place, Mark."

His eyes pinched with confusion. "And you defend him." He drew a hand from behind him to point at her. "Stockholm syndrome."

"Oh don't be ludicrous," she snapped in reply with a slap at his hand to push it from her chest. "It wasn't like that at all."

"Oh," he falsely agreed with a rough voice. "Of course not."

"I don't ever want him – this him – to know, Mark," she pleaded tearfully. "Promise me that you're never going to tell him."

Big swollen eyes did the young Time Lord in, and Mark quickly snatched her in against his chest and held her fiercely against his chest. He felt her nose press up hard against his sternum, but didn't relax his hold. "I promise you that I won't tell him," he vowed breathlessly. "But one day he's going to find out, so you'd better come up with a real good reason for it that doesn't included his involvement in you becoming _everything_ he wanted you to be.."

Rose moaned with effort as she twisted her face to the side to be able to breathe inside a Time Lord's fierce and suffocating embrace. "Bad Wolf," she managed with a croak. "I can blame her."

"TARDIS won't live that lie, Rose," he warned. HE dropped his cheek onto the top of her head. "She loves you, but not enough to face _his_ fury for something like that."

"Then keep me safe enough that I won't regenerate in his presence," she said with a sigh. "Then we won't have to cross that bridge."

Mark shook his head and chuckled. "Miss Jeopardy friendly herself, who stands front and centre in any Alien invasion or melee?"

She slapped him on the chest and pulled back from him. "I'm _not_ jeopardy friendly."

"Hate to say it, Princess," he chirped back with a smirk as she stepped to the Keurig to prepare another coffee. "But you really are quite trouble-prone."

"Been okay so far," she answered with a wide grin that showed both her teeth and the tongue that sat between them.

"Everyone runs out of luck sometime."

Rose tolled her eyes and spooned into het mug a helping of sugar. She dipped into the sugar bowl again when she noticed a note addressed to her on the table. She chewed at the inside of her cheek as she picked it up and unfolded it to reveal the Doctor's neat scrawl. Her exhale was rattled and full of emotion.

"He was upset when he wrote this," she noted quietly without taking her eyes of the Doctor's signature.

"Won't lie to you, Rose," Mark muttered. He rubbed at the back it his head and lifted one side of his face into a wince. "I had to get a lot inventive and even maybe cruel to get him to listen to me. I think he left here only half the man he was when he arrived."

"Which was already half the man he was only yesterday," she mused regretfully.

"He'll be okay, Rose" Mark offered with a put upon smile. "Thing with the Doctor is that he always just picks up and carries on, right? That's what you've always told me, anyway."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, Mark. Don't you worry 'bout him. You leave that worryin' to me, instead."

Mark bit as his lip and looked down to the floor with guilt on his face. "He knows who I am." He lifted his eyes to her but kept his head low. "And who he is to me."

Rose's eyes widened a moment, but quickly fell back to understanding. "Probably worked it out on his own, I'd expect."

"For the most part," Mark agreed. "Yeah. Twigged on real fast that my Dad was the Doctor. Probably because the same thing came up here in this parallel."

Rose looked completely taken back by that revelation. "I'm sorry, _what_?"

"Yeah," Mark said with a laugh. "Only here, he had a girl called Jenny."

Rose's eyes lit up excitedly. "So you have a sister? Oh, Mark. That's wonderful_"

"She died," Mark injected fast to try to quell Rose's excitement. "She took a bullet for him. Didn't make it out." He rubbed at the back of his head. "Guess she's more of a hero than me, yeah? She stepped in and took the shot from Dad, and my Dad took the shot for me."

"The universe needed you," she offered as she moved in to give him a cuddle. "There are bigger things ahead for you, Mark. I promise you that."

"Yeah," he croaked. "I guess."

"I'm sorry about your sister."

"Don't be," he replied softly. "I admit it would have been nice, you know, knowing that I had a sibling out there." He sighed hard. "But you can't miss what you didn't have, right?"

"Not the point," she growled lightly. "It's still gotto hurt."

"Maybe," he sighed. The sigh became a giggle and he pre-emptively held her a little tighter to prevent her inevitable slap against his chest. "Now, if you and Dad can get it worked out, then maybe I'll get a second chance at that."

Rose moaned and wriggled to seek freedom from the circle of his arms. "That's not funny. I've already told you…"

Hs gave her her freedom and stepped back. Both hands were held up in his defence. "Don't go getting' all mad. I know you. I know how you feel about him. You can try to be as strong as you want, but eventually you're going to cave in and seek him out." He tapped at his temple. "He's in here, Rose. You can't fight it. It's a need that's going to have to be sated at some point, or you'll go insane."

"Uh," she moaned as she walked around to the other side of the counter from him. "You make it sound like he's a drug and I'm an addict."

He rolled his eyes. "Well, technically…."

She lifted a finger in warning. "Don't even say it." She huffed and put her hands on her hips. Slowly she lowered her head in thought for a moment. "Fifteen," she recited sadly. She lifted her head to him. "I've lost fifteen versions of him. Most of them broke my heart into a million pieces. Only a couple of them were a relief to escape from." She swallowed. "But I loved each and every one of them more'n I love myself."

He moved to step forward, but halted immediately when she held up her hand to tell him to stop. He bit at his lips to stop himself from talking before she could finish.

"Fifteen times I've had him, and fifteen times I've lost 'im," she continued. "Mark. I can't do it anymore. I can't." A tear fell from her lashes, onto her cheek, and began a lazy wind down past her chin. "I've got a full set of regenerations," she continued. "He's on his second to last. This new one's got none left." Her head shook and her face crumpled. She opened her arms to him in an urgent request for comfort. "I'm going to lose them, and I can't. Not again. It hurts too damn much."

He was at her side in an instant, and had her inside his arms within a breath. He held her tightly and let her completely fall apart in his arms. "It's okay, Princess," he cooed gently. "You got me, okay? No matter what, it's always gonna be me and you. In this regeneration and into the next."

Rose forced out a moan. "Gee, who knew that when I signed on to take care of you that'd be lifetimes of commitment?"

He chuckled. "Admit it, Rose. You adore me. Your life gained new meaning when I came into it."

She snorted and pulled back from him, wiping at her eyes and nose with the back of her hand. "Yeah. True, but just _which_ meaning remains to be defined."

He responded only with a toothy, cheeky grin that stretched right across his face. He then tapped the tip of his finger on the table and licked at his lip. "So. Got plans for today?"

She shook her head. "None that can't wait. Why? What did you have in mind?"

"Jack's been tracking a team of weevils in the South of London that have infiltrated the 1980's."

Rose pursed her lips with interest. "Oh?"

"And they do love themselves a bit of a sniff of time essence."

Rose arched a brow. "You mean it irritates the hell out of them."

"And draws them out of hiding." He pointed toward a pair of leather-encased vortex manipulators. "Feel like a field trip to the time of Rubik's cubes, Pac man, Velour, Tab, scrunchies, parachute pants, perms and really, really groovy music?"

"Groovy was a 60's thing," she corrected with a chuckle.

"Ahhh," he breathed out through a wide open mouth. "There was no _groovin'_ in the 80's?" He seemed almost disappointed. "Well. I could ask Jack if anythin's going on in the 60's…"

Rose shook her head and grinned widely. "Lemme go get dressed. Tell Jack that you'n me will handle the weevils in South London." She practically skipped to the stairs, and turned as she ran to look back toward Mark. "Make sure we've got some cash for the trip. I'm getting you a pair of Rollerskates…" She turned back and chuckled as she flew up the stairs. "Camera. I have to take my camera. A Time Lord falling on his arse is something I have to have proof of!"


	7. Livin' in the 80's

A/N: Once again I blame LovelyAmberLight for an idea that I simply had to run with. She really is a wealth of incredible creativity. Most of my best ideas are hers...

Anyhow ... I hope you enjoy!

GK

~~oooOOOooo~~

He never thought he'd say it, but right now he found the inside of his TARDIS to be incredibly boring. He couldn't take time and tinker with her because there was nothing to tinker with. Rose, and whomever helped her, had kept his time ship in immaculate condition. There wasn't even so much as a wee rusty screw that needed to be replaced.

Oh, perhaps if he crawled in underneath the console and snaked his way into the deepest and most intricate workings of the console, then he would for sure find a bits or bobs that needed replacing. But truth be known, he just couldn't find the will to go in there and try.

For seven hours he'd been holed up in the vortex just drumming his fingers on the console, tossing a tennis ball up and down … up and down … and up and down … and up and down again. The TARDIS really didn't make any complaints about of his absolute lack of enthusiasm. Bless her. She could feel the ache in his single heart and the confusion in his mind. His TARDIS wouldn't bother him or make any demands at all if she knew that he was out of sorts.

He had tried to process the words that Mark had spoken to him only hours ago, but couldn't truly believe that he was anything like the young Time Lord had suggested.

And how about the revelation of a son … sorry, _brother_?

That was a surprise all of its own. Not necessarily an unwelcome one, of course. He imagined that his Full Time Lord self would be thrilled to know that he had a child that survived the adventure of the week. Messaline had very much shattered what was left of his hearts. Most of the reason he had fought so hard against allowing himself the privilege of allowing hope to return to his aged and withered self, was because he knew that the universe would so cruelly rip it away from him again. Oh, that universe was a cruel and vicious bitch. No sooner would he grow complacent toward the debt he felt that owed the universe and she'd rip a new tear across his hearts and take it all away from him again. And how could he argue against this debt? He destroyed the gateway to time, and committed genocide against an entire species….

…No, not only a single species. Gallifrey was home to millions of different species from across the kingdoms of Flora and Fauna. He'd obliterated the _universes_ of animals that believed Gallifrey to be the universe in its entirety… He was a monster. He didn't deserve a second chance at a family. He didn't deserve the second heart of a Time Lord. He certainly didn't deserve Rose.

Mark was right.

The TARDIS chipped and beeped angrily in protest to his thoughts and mentally drew him up from his slouch on the jump seat and led him toward the console. A specific sequence of buttons began to flash, coaxing the Doctor into following that sequence.

"What an odd request for you to make," he muttered quietly toward his TARDIS. "Why do you want me to view the holographic log files? I really don't know what you need access to that bunch of nonsense." He huffed, but followed her command anyway. "I'm not entirely proud of the _Gallifrey files_ thank you very much."

He huffed, thrust his hands deep into his pockets, and looked up at the ceiling. "You're not going to make me feel any better with any of that, I can assure you."

His head flicked off to one side as an invisible static wall slowly materialised in the cavern toward the right of his console. He turned his body toward the turn of his head and slowly dipped his hands into the pockets of his trousers. With a small kick of his heels against the floor, he reluctantly strode forward to gain a much better viewing position for whatever the TARDIS wanted to show him.

He smirked one side of his mouth in remembrance as the wall flickered and came to life in the basement of Henriks on the night he met Rose for the first time.

He saw the manic and almost excited grin of his Ninth self as he reached for Rose's hand and told her to "run!". How strange was that, _really_ , seeing himself from this angle. At the time, he thought himself panicked and rather unreasonable. He was on a suicide mission, after all. Freshly regenerated and only moments after destroying Gallifrey. He hadn't even taken the time to check out his new _look_. No. He hadn't done that until he'd ended up at Rose's flat almost an entire day later.

Oh, hadn't she intrigued him, though? This tiny little human girl. She asked the good questions and not once faltered or shrieked like most women her age might. When he took her hand – the very moment his newly regenerated hand took hers – he felt her strength. He could sense that she was someone special…

His suicide mission became one of reconnaissance. He had to find her again, and had to learn more about this girl.

…And thank the holy trinity of Gallifrey, he'd found her again.

The screen shimmered and then switched to the streets of London, and her hand in his as they looked up into the sky after a harrowing adventure where Earth was lost. They made a striking couple as she vowed to him that he had her, and that them together was better than him alone. "Better with two", she'd said to him, right before they had chips.

He was completely taken by her at that point. He didn't have to see the goofy smile on his face and the infatuation in his eyes to know it. He remembered that point in their relationship quite vividly. As the TARDIS replayed the highlight reel of his Ninth self and Rose's time together, he absolutely drank it all in.

"I'm so glad I met you."

"I don't go anywhere without her. She's staying with me."

"I could save the world, but lose you."

"What use are emotions if you won't save the woman you love?"

"Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you and me. Good."

"I only take the best."

"Your wish is my command."

"And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."

"Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky! Rose? I'm coming to get you."

"C'mere. I think you need a Doctot."

The Doctor smiled a wistful smile of remembrance as he watched his younger self hold onto Rose with all the tenderness of a devoted lover, and then press his lips to hers to save her with a kiss.

He died for her that day. He gave up a regeneration to make sure that she survived her attempt to save his life.

"I deserved her," he spoke confidently toward the centre console. "Everything was about _us_ , he sang out. Rose Tyler and the Doctor. Look at us!" He gestured to the now frozen scene of the two of them in a lover's embrace. "How can _Mark_ say that I don't deserve her; that I took her love for granted? He doesn't know what he's talking about."

He patted at his chest and curled a lip. "Rose is important to me," he snarled. "And as you can plainly see I made sure she knew it." He flicked his hand toward the console. "Put all of that on a USB, old Girl. I'm going to take that back to Earth, throw it in Mark's face, and tell him to sod off with his jealousy."

The holographic wall sizzled and the image swelled with the Doctor in pinstripes. He immediately snapped his attention toward the monitor, confident that it would continue to display the proof of his devotion and love toward his precious pink and yellow girl. "That's right, TARDIS. Keep it coming!"

The Doctor's mood quickly fell from victorious to horrified as he watched the movements of his current self on the screen in front of him. He watched as his younger self strode carelessly into an elevator and let it close behind him, neglecting to check first if Rose was with him.

Oh, he wasn't at all bothered at the time that Rose would be any less than brilliant at getting upstairs to join him.

He didn't count on a vengeful flap of bitchy skin plotting to kidnap and take control over her. It took him far too long to realise that his Rose wasn't actually Rose Tyler. Far, far too long.

At the time he'd blamed regeneration sickness on the short circuit in his brain that failed to register that Rose was no longer Rose. Could he still blame that condition on why it took so long for him to register that Rose had been gone for far too long at the Torchwood home? Was his lack of attentiveness toward her the reason she was taken and then held captive in the cellar?

He finally did find her and come to her rescue, of course. But it was only by sheer chance that she hadn't succumbed to something far worse than merely being shackled and chained to a wall. Anything could have happened in the moments where he was far too distracted and thoughtless toward her safety. Anything at all. IT never even occurred to him to check on her.

"I don't go anywhere without her," is what his Ninth self had proclaimed at 10 Downing Street back when they first met. Jump to his Tenth self, and it seemed that he'd rush off and anywhere she wasn't. For all the moments he held tightly at her hand, there were equal moments when his hand was empty …

Madame du Pompadour's face filled the wall in its entirety, and the Doctor's heart bottomed out completely. This was an adventure that he wanted removed completely from his timeline. No sooner had he promised Rose that he would never abandoned her, he did just that.

Thousands of years into her future, and aboard a ship filled with killer droids he'd not only abandoned her once, but he did so multiple times; always leaving her to the mercy of whatever lain in wait for him to leave.

He couldn't have been more of a jackass if he'd actually made a concerted effort to do so. During no part of that adventure did he act like himself at all – at least not the selves of him who cared for the woman who saved him. He was a rude, flighty, and arrogant cad on that trip. Never before had he gloated about snogging with anyone – not in any incarnation before or since - least of all skite about it to someone who it was clear carried a torch for him.

He behaved more like a filthy human ape that the proud Lord of Time he proclaimed himself to be. He disgusted himself when recalling any part of that adventure. He certainly didn't need the TARDIS to remind him about it.

It wasn't the first time that he'd let Rose think that she was anything other than his first priority; but it was the first time that he was so blatantly cruel toward her feelings. He knew beyond a doubt that she was in love with him, and he – as Mark had so passionately pointed out to him – he took that love for granted.

"I – I don't need to see anymore," he quietly begged the TARDIS as his mind bombarded him with more and more images of the hot and cold dance he performed for Rose. "I get it."

The TARDIS was by no means done with the Doctor. The screen show changed, and now the Doctor ran with Martha rather than Rose. His eyes widened in horror.

"No," he called out. "Please no more. I get it. Okay? I get it. I've been a complete arse." He spun to put his back to the screen that continued to scroll through his misadventures and mistreatment of those who loved him most.

He backed up, refusing to look at the TARDIS' home movies collection, and stumbled into the jump seat. He had to use an arm and a tight grip on the cushion of the seat to not completely crumple up and fall down onto the grating. He finally found his footing and his balance, and slowly pressed his hips backward to take a seat. Very quickly he leaned forward across his knees and buried his face in his hands.

Realisation gripped him at that moment, and he saw the truth behind the words slung at him by the younger Time Lord that had immersed himself within Rose Tyler's compassion. Oh, he knew that he didn't always behave like a dedicated and supportive travel companion to Rose Tyler. Old habits really do die hard. But he did feel that for the most part he was always there for her – as much as she was for him…

…until she wasn't…

Grief toward her loss had gripped him harder than a vice, and he admitted to possibly treating Martha a little more poorly than he should have. He didn't think he'd been quite as bad as the TARDIS playback was suggesting.

"You're only showing the bad bits," he moaned into his hands without looking up. "Martha was amazing, and together we were brilliant." He looked up at the time rotor through the gaps between his fingers. "There were plenty of good times in there as well. Plenty of times where I made sure she knew how special she was to me."

The TARDIS went dark, lit only by the rotor column, as though disagreeing with him.

"You don't think so?" he asked with a rise in his brows as he lifted his head from his hands. "I'm absolutely positive that Martha knew how brilliant I thought she was."

There was a sudden shudder underneath his feet, which had the Doctor leap up out of the seat and rush toward the console. "What was that?"

The shudder shifted to a rumble, and the entire console lit up into brilliant life. Urgent scrolls of curcular Gallifreyan texts swam across the screen, coloured purple with a safety-orange hue to it, it was clear that the TARDIS was concerned, but not yet completely panicked.

"What's wrong?" The Doctor asked worriedly. He looked up to the rotor column as the rotor began to rise and fall inside. His words were almost as husky as the whine and wheeze coming from the ship. "Do we need to be anywhere?"

His eyes flicked to the screen as a new line of data scrolled up and centre. "I see," he stated with a flat voice and a pinch in his eyes. "Time Travel without a TARDIS…" He looked back toward the rotor. "And you're worried that they might get stuck out of their time if their manipulators fail?"

The ship hummed in agreement.

"Well," the Doctor sang out as he leaned across the console and flicked up a switch. "So am I."

He forced out a wide grin as he twisted a dial and kicked at a lever underneath the console. "Fancy a trip to 1980's London?" The grin became more sincere. "Oh, what a time. I remember it quite well in at least three of my early incarnations."

The smile fell. "Oh. We can't have them bump into one of those earlier mes, now, can we? Blonde me was quite a handsome fellow…"

~~oooOOOooo~~

Rose Tyler tugged down at her denim mini-skirt as she skipped over a pothole on the road filled with water. Although coupled with a hot pink pair of cotton-lycra leggings and a pair of black ankle-length Doc Marten boots, she still felt slightly exposed with the hem of her skirt being so damn short. Fortunately her plaid shirt, which matched in colour to her leggings, was long enough that the tail dipped down below the hem of her shirt.

That didn't stop her feeling self-conscious, however. She could feel how short the skirt was. The same couldn't be said for the longer length of her shirt.

"You look great," Mark cooed playfully into her ear. "Enough tuggin' and shiftin'. Anyone would think you weren't into fashion." He spun inside his walk to admire a pair of similarly dressed women walk by them. He flashed them a wide and roguish smile and hummed happily. "This time did like their fashion, didn't they?"

"I have no idea why," Rose groused. "And why you specifically chose this outfit for me to wear." She narrowed her eyes at her companion. "I'm not a twenty year old anymore, Mark. I should be dressed more appropriate for a woman my age."

He humphed a little in thought. "Well. Would that be linear to Human lifespan or a Time Lord one, because my response to _that_ remark really does depend on that answer." He chuckled. "And besides. Have you _seen_ the trousers that women wore during this age, Rose? Talk about making butts look big and saggy."

Rose twisted to attempt to look at her own arse. "Mine isn't, right?"

"I'm thinking that it might be somewhat inappropriate to look and them comment on that." He replied with a purse in his lips.

"Not any less appropriate than my observation that while you've successfully and wholly embraced the jeans tucked into your high tops and the over size button down shirt tucked into the waist band of your jeans." She chuckled when he preened. "You're missing the quintessential part of men's fashion in the 80's"

He looked quite shocked by that. "No," he corrected. "I researched it, Rose. This is …" he swept his hand down along the front of him. "This is what the guys wore back when."

"You're missing the moose knuckle," she muttered with as straight an expression as she could. "Very," she coughed to hide her amusement at his wide-eyed look of horror. "IT's very much a _large_ part of 80's and even 70's culture."

His eyes narrowed and he sniffed off petulantly to one side. "I can tell that you assume I have no idea about what you're talking about, Rose Tyler. However, let me assure you that I am one hundred percent aware of what a moose knuckle is." He visibly shuddered and adopted a rather disgusted expression. "Quite frankly, the practice of displaying your … your _offering_ in such an poverty manner is simply disgusting."

Rose shrugged and tightened the scrunchie that held half of her viciously curled hair up onto of her head. "Well, for _men_ maybe."

He was positively aghast. "Rose! You can't seriously tell me that _that_ is something you look for and admire."

She bust out laughing. "Oh, by the Gods no. I find it revoltin' actually." She dug her finger into his shoulder. "And if you ever go about and start displaying your goods like that…"

He stared at her, expectantly, with real challenge. "Well? You gonna expand on that threat, then?"

She rolled up onto her toes and smirked into his face. "Liquid Nitrogen and an Ice Pick."

"Oh," he chortled as he dipped down his head to meet her. "That's cold."

"Minus three hundred and fourty six," she breathed out against his lips. "To be precise."

He hummed to hide his amusement, but was unable to withhold it for too long. In short time he burst out laughing and stepped to the side to throw his arm across her shoulder. "You, Rose Tyler, are a hard woman to spar with."

"Not really," she giggled, nestling into his side and threading her arm across his back. "But I learned some zingers from mum growin' up. I steal one from time to time when the situation calls for it."

"I would have love to have met her," he said wistfully.

"Me too, Mark," she agreed with equal softness to her voice. "She'd have loved you – crazy alien and all."

They walked in silence for a moment, just looking around them at the hustle and bustle in the street. It was getting fairly late into the evening, and the sky was dark with looming clouds threatening rain. Neither of them felt any chill, though. There was still quite a bit of residual warmth from the day to keep them comfortable.

"So when are we then?" Rose asked finally.

"1987," Mark answered proudly. "Quite an exciting year, actually. Fiji became a republic, the Baby 'M' case went to trial and was ruled upon with a landmark decision that affected surrogacy for women across the world. The Simpsons aired their very first episode on the Tracey Ullman show. The Order of the Garter was opened to women of the British Isles. Reagan gave his iconic _tear down the wall_ speech in a demand to reunify Germany." He took a breath. "The SN 1987A Supernova – better known as the all seeing eye of eternity by the Gallifreyan peoples – was first seen by the naked eye here on Earth."

Rose chuckled.

"In October there was a great storm that hit Britain, killing 23 people and injuring hundreds. It was the most powerful storm to hit Britain in 200 years."

"Interesting," Rose said with a sigh.

"The European act became effective in 1987," he continued on a lecture. "Bringing the European parliament closer towards the formation of the European Union. The United Kingdom set a high speed train record of 148 miles per hour." He paused and tightened his arm to pull her a bit closer. "But the best thing to happen in 1987 was the birth of one Rose Marion Tyler to parents Jackie and Peter Tyler. Happy birth year, Rose."

Rose nestled in more comfortably against his side and let out a heartfelt sigh of gratitude. "Thanks, Mark."

"You're welcome, Princess."

"You know. You sound just like him," she said with a smile. "I mean your Dad. Whenever he'd materialise, he'd always introduce us to the place with a lecture about the time and the people." She lifted her head to look up at him. "He'd be proud of you."

"Nah," he drawled with a chuckle. "With Dad, it all comes natural to 'im." He tapped at his temple. "He's got all that information from centuries of travel all up there in his head. Me? I just googled it before we left."

"Still impressive," she said with a sigh, staggering her walk enough that she could bump her hip against his. "And don't you think that he didn't TARDIS search his own facts before we materialised. Always trying to be so impressive."

"I thought he was."

"Well, yeah," she sighed out. "He was. Is. Always will be."

Mark frowned. "Looks like you're nosediving into misery again, Rose. We're not here to be miserable."

"No," she agreed with a slight warning in her tone. "We're supposed to be here tracking Weevils."

He rubbed guiltily at the back of his head. "Right," he drawled. "About that."

"There aren't any Weevils, are there?"

"Nope," he popped sheepishly. "Notta one. I just figured you needed a break, that's all. Jack said that this time is free of nonsense and nefarious alien activity." He grinned. "Well. That is. Non-nefarious as fat as Rose and Mark Tyler are concerned of course. Who knows what mischief you and me will find?"

"It terrifies me to consider it," she answered with her brows high.

A shriek from an alleyway only a short distance away from them had Rose and Mark look at each other with expressions of resignation.

"It never fails," she sighed as she dipped into her shirt pocket and retrieved a small firearm." She looked to Mark. "You armed?"

He gave her a firm nod and pointed his hand outward in a gesture for her to run before him. "Age before beauty."

She levered him with a playfully offended glare and then quickly took off at a run toward the scuffle. She listened hard toward the corner to see if she could very quickly make out the number of attackers before they got there so that she could be adequately prepares when they got to the scene. In her peripheral, she could see that Mark was making the same analysis inside his own mind.

"Three," she stated with a pant.

"On one," he added with a growl. "Three men, one woman."

She jagged off to one side of the alleyway entrance and pointed her hand to the other. "Go right, Mark. I'm going left," she ordered with a harsh and loud whisper.

"Got it, Princess," he called back with equal force. "Be careful. I've got your back."

She gave him a wink and pressed her back up against the wall. From the sound of movement, it was clear that the three assailants were very large individuals. Judging by the airy pants and the snorted wet inhales, they were dealing with something off world….

…And if the smell was any indication, probably either Dilp or Grekkont. Neither of which were pleasant individuals – but they weren't the type to go after humans. Whatever they had cornered was obviously another offworlder who just happened to end up at the wrong place at precisely the wrong time…

..Or the right time, if she and Mark could help them out.

She pressed her back into the brick and peered around the corner in an identical movement to Mark. They shared a look and then cast their gaze into the darkness of the alleyway. Underneath the glow of a lone incandescent bulb swinging from a fixture above a set of fire stairs, a tiny blonde woman was being over powered by a trio of attackers.

Only one of them appeared to be from anywhere other than Earth. This should be a rather easy take down.

She looked toward Mark and pointed toward the meele. She mouthed _Grekkont_ and then counted off with her fingers. _Three. Two. One._

With synchronised movements, both Mark and Rose stepped into the alley way. They held their small firearms up and in aim toward the alien and approached carefully.

"Back off," Rose bellowed out as she tightened her grip on her weapon and lifted it higher into her line of sight. "Leave the girl alone, you're under arrest."

The male partners of the Grekkont both swore out loudly about the cops and then tore off in opposite directions away from the scene. Nether Mark nor Rose shifted to follow. Both of them were focused on the beast ahead of them that was quickly breaking his more human disguise to become more typical of his species. He lifted his nose to the sky and made a grand show of sniffing the air hungrily. He purred and looked back down toward the pair.

"Time Lords," he snarled.

"Pardon me," Mark corrected with an insulted snarl. "But that would be _Lord and Lady_ , thank you very much." He flicked his eyes toward the blonde who looked as stunned to their arrival as she was terrified to be in this situation to begin with. "Are you okay, love," he called out.

Rose tipped her head to one side in with invitation. "Come round behind us," she called. "We'll handle this one for you."

The blonde woman nodded her head quickly and took a last look toward the now towering beast before she pushed herself from the wall and jogged around to stand in between Mark and Rose.

"Pursuant to section 143, subsection 3a of the Torchwood Offworlder Interference act you are under attest," Rose ordered out sharply. "All offworlders are required under the Shadow Proclamation to notify Torchwood officials upon entering Earth, or any of her territories. This includes the Moon, and any celestial objects that get caught up by natural means within the Earth's gravitational pull." She passed a look to Mark, and waited for him to further refine the aim of his weapon before continuing. She then looked back toward the beast. "There is nothing in any Torchwood logs that show permissions granted for any offworlders in this time, and in this location."

Mark sneered along the muzzle of his gun. "Futher to the charge outlined by my partner. Section 52, subsection 1.13 states that aggression of any form from an offworlder toward a permanently recognised citizen of Earth and her Territories – which include Humans and all indigenous Earth life, as well as offworlders approved for settlement." His lip curled. "Of which I know for a fact you definitely aren't – is illegal and punishable up to and including execution."

The creature narrowed his eyes with mirth and laughed.a bellow of absolute and utter condescension. "And how do either of you propose to do that? Scrawny little Gallifreyean filth and your equally scrawny little weapons." He puffed his chest out and loomed over them. "I am a mighty Grekkont. I am invisible to these pathetic Earth weapons."

Rose kept her eyes on the beast, but tipped her head toward Mark. "He's right, you know. No Earth weapon is effective against the brutes from Grekkonia. Tough hide, bit like natural Kevlar."

"Ahhhh," Mark drawled. He looked down at his weapon. "Yeah. I forgot about that."

The Grekkont bellowed a victorious laugh. "I shall have victory over the last children of Gallifrey tonight!"

"Yeah," Mark sang out with a somewhat forced apologetic curl in his lip. "Sorry to mess with your plans and all. But see. Me and Rose. Yeah, we're Time Lord and Lady, sure." He flicked his eyes to Rose, winked, and then shook his weapon in a single grand movement, like a man cocking a large rifle. "See. I wasn't born on Gallifrey." His weapon shifted from compact and discrete to large and extremely ostentatious. From the corner of his eye, he watched as Rose performed the same manoeuvre and end up with an identical weapon.

He missed the sound of awe from the woman who stood between them, but definitely caught the thrill and command inside Rose's voice as she backed up her partner.

"And neither was I," she snarled out. "So even though we are puny little Time Lords…"

"And Lady," the blonde corrected with a laugh. She looked up to Mark with a wide grin. "Cause I heard you make that correction earlier. Lord. Lady."

"Right," Rose drawled with a curious brow. She shook herself and looked back toward the beast. "So now that we have nice big weapons that are more than capable of taking down a filthy Grekkont, care to surrender yourself?"

He answered with only a low growl.

"Ahh," she breathed out. "I didn't think so,"

"So how do we propose to do this, Rose," Mark asked quietly, his aim still on the beast ahead of them. "We need to get him back to our time and to Torchwood, but we only have a pair of vortex manipulators."

Rose steadied her aim. It didn't look for the moment like the beast was going to try and take on a pair of large firearms any time soon, but he wasn't going to back down, either.

"If we can get a manipulator on his wrist, then we can send him straight into one of the cells at torchwood. Jack won't question it."

"We'll have to program it," Mark agreed. "And make sure it deactivates immediately upon arrival so that he isn't able to leave."

Rose pursed her lips. "Which means, of course, that one of us has to take our eyes and weapon off 'im. Not too big on our chances of keeping it contained with only one weapon, right?"

"It's a thinker," Mark agreed. "I'm a decent multi-tasker and all, but I reckon this is testing my limits a bit."

"I'll take the gun," a small and somewhat excitable voice chirped from in between them. "You program the vortex manipulator and get it on King Kong over there, and me and the Time Lord over here can stand guard." She gave Rose a beaming grin of assurance. "It's quite alright. I've handled plenty like this in the past few years. Happy to help out."

Rose snapped her attention toward the woman. "I'm sorry, what?"

Her excitement fell and her face lengthened as she internally tried to figure out exactly what to say. "Oh. I'm really no good at this, am I?" She held out her hand. "Hi! I'm Jenny. Time Lady, much like you are. Not born on Gallifrey, either, although I think my Dad was." She lifted her eyes, which were still wide with excitement. "Still," she lowered her head into her neck with a lift of her shoulders. "You have no idea just how happy I am to meet you."

"This isn't really the time for introductions," Rose warned in a voice that said she was far more perplexed than angry.

"No, you're right," she agreed with a frown of obedience on her face and a firm nod. "It can wait. Duty calls." She stepped underneath Mark's gun to undo his manipulator. "May I?" she asked with a disarming smile.

Mark's eyes were locked on the girl, and he said nothing to dissuade her from stealing his manipulator.

Rose was having none of that. "If you don't mind! You can't take that!"

"Nah," Mark breathed out curiously. "It's okay, Rose. I say that we let her try. I'm curious as to whether or not… We can always call the TARDIS if she's one of the nefarious ones that _he_ always warns about."

"Not nefarious," se corrected with a shake of her head. "Only on the side of good. Like my Dad. Now if you don't mind: Temporal and location coordinates please." There was order in her tone and a lift in her eyes to look into Mark's face. "Well? Come on, I certainly can't program this if I don't have all of the information, can I?"

Mark's eyes shifted to Rose, and she had to admit that he had a somewhat enamoured look in them as he politely provided her with the information Jenny wanted. Jenny looked up at Rose with seriousness in her youthful eyes. "So provided that the coordinates provided by the Time Lord are in any way accurate, I've entered the coordinates for the cell block back at your Torchwood facility." She snapped the leather cover of it closed and turned back toward the Grekkont. "Now, to figure out how to get it on and not get caught up in the manipulator's vortex pull." She blew out a breath and widened her eyes. "Well. This isn't going to be at all easy, but it's certainly doable."

Jenny looked to the two of them, noted their perplexed expressions and waved her hands. "Well come on. I'm going to need some cover here."

Rose lifted her brows with amusement and shrugged. "Well. You can't say that or life isn't completely mental." She steadied her aim on the Grekkont, who seemed to be just as amused and curious about the proceedings. "Right, Mark. You heard her. Make sure she's got cover."

Everything happened in relative short motion from that moment. As Mark and Rose stood firm and readied to shoot if necessary, Jenny shot forward toward it. She flipped and sprung off her hands to evade the swipe of his large, thick meaty tail. She stepped three steps off the wall to run up and launch onto its shoulders. She waited barely a heartsbeat before flipping in a cartwheel off his shoulder to grab at his wrist. She secured the manipulator with its Velcro fastening and activated the vortex power of it. She barely escaped the pull of the vortex, and only did so with another backflip off the ground that landed her heavily against Mark's chest.

She panted with laughter and thrill as she watched the blue light fully engulf the beast and it disappeared completely from view.

"Woah," she said with a pant. "He's a lot bigger than he was when I first saw him." She turned to look toward Rose with a glint of curiosity in her eye. A frown of study replaced her amused excitement. "You called him a Grekkont, earlier. What can you tell me about him? Oh, and what is Torchwood?"

Mark stepped forward and held out his hand. It was clear to Rose that her best friend was completely and utterly besotted. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Mark. Mark Tyler." He waited a beat. "And this is Rose. It is such a pleasure to meet you."


	8. Dancing

A/N: Moving on ... Not much to say about this one .. believe it or not.

I hope you enjoy!

~~oooOOOOoo~~

Rose Tyler had finally had enough and needed a break from dancing as the final chords of "I wanna Dance with Somebody" sizzled loud and somewhat hollowly through the oversized speakers of the club. After having spent at least seven songs dancing within her trio of Time Lords, she had to get off the floor. She'd grown tired of waving her hand through the cigarette smoke and smoke from a fog machine beside the DJ. The smoke relentlessly circled around the entire dancefloor, but she had to admit that it looked pretty cool the way that it both muffled and accentuated the lights from the multi-coloured tiles on the floor. Jenny had been awed by it almost immediately. Her eyes lit up almost as wide and large as her smile, and she very quickly used the alternating patterns of the flashing dance floor to teach herself how to dance, and she did so with all the fervor of a toddler figuring out how to move to music.

Mark was a less enthusiastic dancer, although he held his own fairly well. He was sure to step out of the way of Jenny when her movements became a little larger than he'd though possible given her incredibly tiny frame, but was quite adept in keeping them partnered with the music.

When Rose petted at her chest with a pant and gestured toward their cocktail table nearby the dancefloor, Mark was quick to check if she was okay.

"I'm good," she nodded with a smile of assurance. "Just need a drink."

He looked somewhat disappointed and flicked his eyes toward Jenny, who had started jumping from square to square with both feet in time to the beat of _Mony Mony_. "Okay. We should come with you."

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Don't be daft, Mark. I'll be fine." She pointed to the table. "I'm within stalking distance of you."

"If you're sure."

"Very," she replied with a wide smile and a wink toward Jenny and a waggle in her brow. "Stay here with Jen. I really don't think she's quite ready to take a break yet." Her eyes flicked to the pretty young woman. "Am I right?"

"Oh no," Jenny panted with a wide grin as she stopped dancing a moment and twirled in place with her arms open wide. "Dancing! Oh I _love_ the dancing." She cupped her fists under her chin and sighed very happily for a moment. It didn't take long for her to start bouncing again. She took both of Mark's hands in hers and excitedly dragged him into her excitement. "And I thought that _running_ was fun!"

Rose chuckled, that chuckle switching to a laugh when Mark offered her a helpless – and very enamoured – look. "Well. You too kids have fun." She thumbed to the table. "I'll get us some drinks."

Mark answered with only a goofy grin over rolling shoulders as Jenny tugged and pulled on his arms.

Rose rolled her eyes and then gave him a cautionary point of her finger. "Behave," she warned threateningly. "No takin' advantage, you hear."

"Gimme a break."

Rose held up two fingers, pointed at her eyes and then back at him. "I'm watching," she warned with a straight face to hide her amusement as she turned and walked toward their table. She chuckled to herself in the knowledge that Mark just may have found himself a little girlfriend to keep him amused.

Which was good thing, she whined pathetically inside her own mind. It was. It'd be a good thing for him to get out and enjoy life and not be so dependent on her company to get him through. He needed his own life, and after almost thirty years together with basically just the two of them, it was time.

Rose might not be wholly ready for a new women in Mark's life, but she wasn't going to attempt to hold him back. And how lucky for him that the woman who he found was a Time Lady with a compatible lifespan to his.

"Brilliant," she admitted with a smile. "Good for him. Good for you, Mark."

"Not very gentlemanly of him to leave you here by yourself, is it?" the Doctor's voice crooned into her ear from over her shoulder.

Rose bit her lip and held her breath. She waited until he'd moved from behind her to take position at her side before responding in any way. When she did, it was with a teasing voice and smile. "Well. He _is_ Time Lord. Worse, he's part _you_. So I would expect that he skipped right over the gentlemanly gene pool."

"I'd take offense to that," he muttered with a shrug as he lifted a beer bottle to his lips and drew back a mouthful. He swallowed with a wince of disgust and eyeballed the bottle. "But I'd much rather focus any offence I may have to the abhorrent liquid inside this bottle that they're charging a ridiculous amount of money for."

"It's American beer," Rose advised with a smirk. "Everyone this side of the pond knows that American beer is simply watered down cat piss."

His brows lifted high and he set the bottle down on the table rather gingerly. "Well. That is quite beyond disgusting, thank you, Rose Tyler."

"You're welcome," she mused as she looked back to the dance floor. "So which one are you?"

"You have to ask?"

She shrugged. "Well. I'd like to say that you're the MetaCrisis version of the Time Lord," she began on a high noted sigh. "But he was told to keep his distance, and I'd expect that he'd be able to take that rather glaring hint like a man, so I'm guessing not."

He huffed with disappointment. "Facetiousness is rather unbecoming, Rose."

"So's not listenin'."

He snorted. "Well. MetaCrisis or not, the Doctor isn't exactly widely known to be a man that _listens_ and then does as he's told." He folded his arms across his chest. "In Time Lord society I'm known as a renegade. Why? Because I didn't listen to any of them. Not a single one of them. Even if it was for my own good." He turned his head to look at her. "And if I didn't listen to an entire council of people who had the power to force a regeneration as punishment for interfering – which they did, I'll have you know." He set his jaw and curled a lip. "Save the universe and get given a death penalty and exile for my trouble." His eyes brightened. "Still. I ended up a rather handsome fellow when it was done. Got stuck here on Earth, actually. Terrible time I had of it, I won't lie. Although during that phase I did meet the lovely Sarah-Jane…"

"Doctor?" Rose cut in curiously. "Is it at all possible to have a conversation with you that doesn't end up goin' completely off the rails and mental?"

He pressed his lips together, thrust his hands into his pocket and rocked back on his heels. He seemed to contemplate her question a moment before shaking his head. "Nope. Comes with living for near a millennia with a TARDIS as your constant companion. Lots of rather unique and – as you so eloquently put it: _mental_ – experiences happen."

A big-haired waitress dropped a trio of tumblers of mixed spirits on the table in front of Rose. She cast her eyes to the Doctor and gave him a flirtatious smile of greeting.

"And what can I get you, honey?"

The Doctor crossed his arms and leaned his elbows on the tabletop. He gave the woman his trademark coquettish toothy smile. "Well. I'm not entirely sure. I know that the beer I tried was positively awful, so what would you suggest?"

Beside him Rose rolled her eyes and let out a moan of annoyance. The waitress switched her eyes from Rose toward the Doctor and gave him a wink. "How about I start you off with a coconut daiquiri, and then, when my shift is over, perhaps we can look over the cocktail menu at my place?"

"That's forward," Rose growled under her breath.

"Lovely invitation, but I must decline," he said with his flirtatious smile still firmly in place. "It's been very recently brought to my attention that I am a rather insufferable flirt with a penchant for wandering off and leaving my friends." He swallowed and tilted his head in apology. "This is to be rectified immediately if I'm to prove my worth to the actual target of my affections – which would be the lovely Rose Tyler…"

"Oh give it a rest," Rose moaned into her hand. She looked up through the gaps between her fingers. "Go right ahead and flirt away of you must. I'm not exactly alone tonight." She removed her hand and smiled the fakest and brightest smile she could conjure up. "So, sure. He'd love to join you this evening. Perhaps he might take your hand, run, and change your entire life for you."

The Doctor's eyes narrowed with annoyance when Rose tilted her head and gave him an adoring smile and stated: "Like he did with me."

"Yeah," the waitress drawled on a long and somewhat disappointed voice. She looked first to Rose, and then back to the Doctor, who maintained a frustrated expression toward Rose. "I think I'll withdraw the offer. But the drink recommendation stands. Would you like the daiquiri?"

The Doctor flicked his attention back to her and grinned widely as he slapped his hand on the table. "Yes! A Coconut Daiquiri," he called out. "Sounds absolutely brilliant. I'll take two: One for me, and the other for Rose." He looked toward Rose. "That is, if you want one of course." His eyes dropped to her drink. "Looks like you're drinking something a little less along the lines of a cocktail…"

"Vodka, actually," she replied. She lifted the glass and drew back a sip through a black straw. "With orange, otherwise known as a screwdriver."

The Doctor's brows lifted. "A screwdriver, you say?" He grinned. "I quite like screwdrivers – mostly of the sonic kind – so I suspect I'll quite enjoy this one just as much." He looked to the waitress. "Forget the coconut drink. Make me a pair of screwdrivers, please."

"Make mine a triple," Rose called out as the woman walked away.

The Doctor pursed his lips and gave a slight frown. "Planning on getting drunk, Rose Tyler?"

"The chance would be a fine thing," she muttered with a sigh as she lifted her tumbler and took a look at the liquid inside. "I'm on my fifth double, and I still can't feel a buzz. I must have the metabolism of a …. Of a … oh, I dunno, Doctor. What species has a metabolism that permanently nukes any alcohol in the blood?"

He scratched at his sideburn. "Well. That's a pretty long list, actually. There are plenty of species across the universe that suffer none of the intoxicating effects of alcohol that Humans do." He pressed his lips together hard enough to pop out his lower lip and slouched at the table. "Time Lords are one, of course. Our metabolism is such that in order to experience any of the sometimes euphoric effects of alcohol, we either have to drink some pretty potent off-world product – Hyper Vodka being one such substance of nastiness – or a glass or two of absinthe."

Rose's brows lifted curiously. "Absinthe?"

He nodded and hummed the affirmative. "Fat chance of getting it here, though. Absinthe was banned in the UK back in 1915. I don't believe it was made available again until around 1998."

"Well," she sighed as she swirled the glass in her hand. "That's disappointing."

"And why's that then," he queried curiously. "I'm sure a few shots of whatever you're drinking will do the trick." He frowned. "Not that I recommend it at all. I quite frown on drunkenness, actually. Inhibitions lost, mistakes made, lives ruined and all that."

"Never thought you'd be so dull," she admitted with a shrug.

"Waste of effort, really," he offered with a shrug and a mumbled voice. "Alcohol is dishonest."

"People are more honest when they're drunk," Rose countered. "At least that's what mum told me."

"Not really," he said in reply. "Yeah, you _might_ lose your inhibitions and be more prone to say what's on your mind and do things you wouldn't normally do – but it really isn't the real _you_ that's doing it."

"I suppose," she sighed.

Silence fell between them as the opening chords for Starship's _Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now_ filled the club. For much of the song, they both stood in silence. Rose sang the lyrics lightly under her breath, the Doctor analysed them inside his head.

Finally the Doctor could bear no more of the lack of chatter between them. He turned toward her and beamed a hopeful smile. "So? 1987?"

Rose nodded, but didn't take her eyes off the dance floor, where Mark and Jenny were still excitedly whooping it up and dancing.

The Doctor winced just slightly at her inattentiveness toward him, but lumbered forth anyway. "1987. A lot of really interesting things occurred in 1987."

Rose smiled and hummed, not taking her eyes from ahead of her. "Yes, I know. Mark gave me the Cliff's notes version shortly after we arrived. It was a very exciting year."

"Yeah," he drawled jealously. "Mark. Your new Time Lord boyfriend." He jutted his chin toward the dancefloor where he could see the laughing expression upon the young man's face through the packed floor. "Who found himself a pretty young girlfriend and abandoned you to go _dance_."

"Must be in the genes," she replied with a shrug. "Like father, like son."

"I guess I can't exactly counter that with a denial," he groused petulantly. "I have to wonder if the slideshow that the TARDIS decided to make me endure was in any way Mark's doing." He turned to her. "Do you have any idea of the way he spoke to me last night?"

"Yes," she answered. "Mark was very open with me about the discussion the two of you had last night. I believed he admitted to being perhaps a little cruel in the things he said to you." She levered her eyes toward him. "He didn't paint himself in the most glorious picture, Doctor. Mark's a good boy. He's honest. If you can find it within you to squash your jealousy, then perhaps you'll find that you'll be incredibly proud of him."

"He insulted me," the Doctor growled.

"No," Rose corrected. " _I_ insulted you. Anything Mark said to you was merely a repeat of what I'd already said to him. Give him credit for actually saying it to your face instead of sneering it behind your back."

"Is that truly how you feel?" he replied with hurt. "Everything he said, your perspective on every part of our lives together, is that all true."

"Yeah," she breathed out. "All of it. If Mark said it, then it's all true." She looked toward the man in question, and then back to the Doctor. "He has absolutely nothing to gain by pushing you out of our lives. In fact, he has everything to lose by it – including a brother, or a father, whichever relationship you might forge together – so you can take him at his word."

The Doctor gulped. "And how about your mistreatment at the hands of my parallel selves?"

She shook her head and drew back a long swig from her straw. When she spoke, her voice was broken. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But I need to," he implored. "Because if all of this _division_ that you have in place separating us is because my parallel selves hurt you…"

She turned on him then, eyes blazing with fury. "I _loved_ them," she growled passionately. "Each and every one of them."

His eyes flashed wide. "H-how many?"

Rose ignored the question. "I was loved by all of them. Some of them with more passion than I could stand, but I was loved nonetheless." She moved in close to him and gripped at the lapels of his blazer. Her voice lowered in tenor. "And I loved them equally in return. Just as I love you," she finished her sentence with a recital of a multi-syllable word will trills and rolls that had the Doctor's face fall in disbelief as he staggered backward. She released his jacket and turned side on to him. "And the Time Lord you." Her aggression softened. "And eventually I lost them. Each and every one of them."

"How?" he questioned even though he couldn't find his voice.

"How is really not your concern," she answered back somewhat cruelly. "But eventually it happened."

"No," he croaked. "You misunderstood my question."

She looked to him with confusion. "I'm not really sure how…"

"I didn't want to know their fates," he stated quickly, panic clearly in his eyes. "Quite frankly the thought of it terrifies me. What I want to know is how it is that you know my name."

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped in realisation. "Oh!" she called out. "Yes. Of course I'm sorry. Your name, well. That's easy. You told me."

"When?" he asked worriedly. "Rose. I don't just say my name to anyone. I _can't_ just say my name to anyone. There … there's only one way I would – that I _could_."

She grinned toward him. "Oh, the marriage thing? Yes, you did mention that one _that you can only speak your name to your wife._ " She laughed. "Which was total lies. A decent shag was enough to get you to swear the oath of your people and growl your name in my ear."

His voice flew up to an almost whistled pitch. "Shag?"

"Yep," she popped out. "Good and proper ones at that."

His eyes narrowed. "Oh. Now I _know_ you're lying." He leaned in toward her. "I do not engage in casual activities of that nature."

She flicked her eyes to him. "What makes you think it was casual."

"You calling it a _shag_ for one," he groused back with disgust. "I find that to be quite an abhorrent term to describe the tender act of mating…"

"And you think that _mating_ is a better term for it?"

"It's better than _shag_." He was indignant. "I'll have you know, Rose Tyler, that in the event that you and I come together to engage in the physical coupling of…"

"Shag," she supplied with cheek.

"If," he drawled long in warning. "We ever did. You would never refer to it with that disgusting moniker. Of that I am most certain."

Rose smirked and looked back toward Mark on the dance floor. She could see the complete enamouring of him toward Jenny. It was – without a doubt – incredibly adorable.

"So did I tell you that we met a Time Lady today?"

The Doctor's face creased in curiosity. "A Time _what_? A Time Lady?"

"I'm pretty sure I mentioned it."

He lifted his head and scratched at the side of his jaw. His face remained in its creased up expression. "No, don't recall any revelations of that nature." He stopped scratching his jaw and relaxed with his elbows back on the table. 'Impossible that you would have anyway. They're all gone, my people."

"Time travellers," Rose injected with a shrug. "You lot travelled through time and space. Makes sense that you might bump into one here and there out of your time."

"Well it doesn't, actually."

"Okay, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that you may on random bump into a Time Lord or Lady…"

"Actually, it is," he interrupted impatiently. "Rose. That's out of the question for two reasons: One, only a very rare few of my people dared venture off Gallifrey by TARDIS. Those that did were typically exiled by council during their final incarnation to a very specific time that is time locked to other Lords that don't exist on the same linear timeline as the exiled one."

Rose's eyes were wide, which showed she was interested, so he kept going. "And two: A TARDIS will not land in a time and place where there already exists another Time Lord from outside their own time line." He chuckled deep within his throat. "TARDISes throw tantrums, Rose. And trust me when I say that you don't want to push a TARDIS somewhere she doesn't want to go. It never ends well."

Rose chuckled and looked back out to the dancefloor. "Doesn't always end well when she actually does land where she wants to go."

"Ahh, but it's always a fun trip, isn't it, Rose?"

She grinned. "Very much so."

He slouched again on the table and gave a smile. "So tell me about this Time Lady of yours. I'll let you know if I know her or not."

"Doubt it," Rose said with a smile. "She's very young. Wasn't loomed on Gallifrey, but said that her father was Gallifreyan."

"Did she happen to give his name?"

Rose shook her head. "No. We didn't get there. Mark and me actually rescued her from an attack." She winced a little on one side. "Weren't exactly expecting to run into anything like that in this time. We only came here for a couple of days R&R to celebrate my birth year…"

"Your Birth _what_?"

"Birth year," she answered very matter-of-fact. "Mark thought it would be fun to bring me to 1987 and celebrate the year of my birth."

"Oh," he sang with surprise. "Well. Happy Birth year. Sorry I don't have a present."

Rose smiled and shook her head. "Anyway, so Mark and me heard a scream and we ran into investigate. Unfortunately, we found ourselves just a teensy bit outnumbered by a single Grekkont, and Jen jumped in to help out."

"A what?" he barked incredulously.

"A Grekkont," Rose repeated as she lifted her hand high to indicate stature. "About yay tall, big, ugly, really mean. Bit like King Kong with a really nasty tail."

"Yes, Rose. I'm familiar with the Grekkont." He slumped and dropped his head on the table. "Is it ever possible for you to be somewhere and _not_ find yourself in peril?"

"Well, yeah," she answered in a drawl that wasn't entirely believable. "Sometimes."

He exhaled a huff. In his mind he was plotting every conceivable method available to him to make sure that Rose Tyler would never again find herself outnumbered by nefarious alien species ever again. "Anyway, moving on."

"Right," she sang. "So Jenny – that's her name – put up her hand and offered to help out." She grinned wide. "And she was pretty incredible to watch, Doctor. I do believe that Mark may just be caught hook, line , and sinker." She laughed for a moment and then sobered up. "Anyway, once it was all over and the time came for proper introductions, we kind've just ignored it and decided to all hit the town together. Me, Mark, and Jen.."

"Jenny isn't exactly a Gallifreyan name," The Doctor slid in warily. "Aside from my daughter, of course. But she was named by Donna, who combined the words Genetic anomaly to come up with it."

"Please tell me that you did not call your daughter a genetic anomaly – at least not while she was in earshot."

He scratched at his sideburn. "Can't quite recall," he managed with a strangled tone of voice.

She smacked him hard on the shoulder. "You really are an arse sometimes, Doctor. If she was anythin' like Mark when he was loomed, then she would have been confused and unsure. Havin' you telling her that she was just an anomaly would have been incredibly cruel." Her eyes narrowed. "I hope that that was all you said to her in a negative way. Like it or not, Doctor, she was born of you, and therefore she needed you."

"She was born a soldier," he corrected sharply. "She was only a shadow of what it was to be a Time Lord."

"You did _not_ say that to her?" At his guilty expression Rose thumped him again – four times – on the shoulder. Each thump accompanied a word snarled though her mouth. "You. Are. An. Arse."

"Well hold on now, Rose," he growled out as he pulled back from her and held at his shoulder. "Enough of the violence, thank you!" He rubbed at his arm. "In my defense. Jenny was born without my consent…"

"That's not an excuse," she growled at him, eyes narrowed. "Plenty of babes are born that way. It wasn't her fault." She growled. "Such an insensitive arse, you are, sometimes."

"A trait that I'm fast becoming very aware of," he growled in return. "And I'll have you know that before she passed, she was well aware that I found her to be absolutely brilliant, and held her in both of my hearts."

"You better 'ave," she warned. "Because every little girl wants to know that her dad loves her. I don't care if you're Human, Time Lord, or a squelchy blob from Ferronous-X"

"Fernious-X," the Doctor supplied.

"Whatever," Rose huffed out with frustration. "We all want our dad to be our hero, and know that we are his number one girl; that we are protected an' loved by them."

"I vow to you," the Doctor swore fiercely, "that she knew all that when she died in my arms."

"Good." Her brows pinched. "Well not good that she died, but good that you at least gave her that much." She levered her eyes to him. "You arse."

"I get it," he moaned. "I'm a terrible person. Please stop with the insults and let me at least try to better myself. I can't exactly regenerate into a man who might be a nicer person, so you have to give me a break and let me figure it out." He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Can you give me that?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah, Doctor. I can."

He didn't release her hand, instead he gave it a tight squeeze. He looked up at the shock of auburn hair that stood up over the rest of the dancing crowd. "So this Time Lady. She's here?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah. She's with Mark learning the joy of dancing." She smiled. "Mark's very taken with her, you know. I think he might've found himself a potential mate."

He smirked, but didn't take his eyes off Mark. "I suspect she has your approval."

"None of my business, really. Mark's his own man." She smiled. "But, yeah. She's a good one. Feisty enough to keep him on his toes." She winked at him. "And she's absolutely gorgeous!"

He rubbed his thumb along her knuckles and looked toward her with an expression of adoration. "I think you are, as well, you know."

She looked at him in much the same manner. "And I, you, you daft alien git."

"Well, well, well," Mark's voice crooned in an amused manner from across the table. "It didn't take you too long to find us, did it?"

The Doctor slowly shifted his head to look toward his _brother._ He lifted a brow at the disarray in the presentation of the young Lord. "Well, you look quite exhausted, Mark. Have fun on the floor with your new girlfriend?"

Mark took a sip of his drink and shrugged. "Not that I like the condescending tone of voice, there, Doctor, but yeah. Jen's looking like pretty decent long-term material, if you get my meaning." He winked toward Rose. "We've missed you on the floor."

Rose looked around him. "Where is she?"

"Ladies room," he answered back with a smile. "She said she needed to get herself put back together or something. Her hair's a mess and she's damp with sweat – in other words, absolutely gorgeous." He looked over his shoulder. "Shouldn't be too long, I imagine. She's having a great time."

"Glad to hear it."

He looked toward the Doctor. "If you're here, it means the TARDIS is close by as well. We're two hoppers short of being able to make it back to our time in one hit. Can we beg a lift?"

The Doctor shrugged. He still had Rose's hand in his. He was reluctant to let it go. "Can't see why not," he answered. "Plenty of room, and the old girl does love a full command deck."

"So no _Yeah, Mark. No worries at all, Brother. It's my pleasure. I'd be happy to take you lot back home…_ "

The Doctor hummed on that thought a moment. "No. I stand by my original comment."

"Then I'm driving."

"Under Rassilon's dead body you are."

"Flown her more times than you have."

"Yeah,' the Doctor coughed. "Only because she's not from this parallel."

A chipper female voice entered the conversation. "What's going on?"

"Pissing contest," Rose called out tiredly as she peered around Mark's chest to see Jenny standing behind him.

"A _What_? Well. That sounds quite revolting." She popped her head around Mark's frame with the intent to introduce herself to Rose's friend. "Hi! I'm Jenny—" her eyes widened with surprise and her mouth stretched wide. "Dad?"

The Doctor released Rose's hand abruptly and he quickly circled around the table. His eyes were wild with thrill and his face beaming. "Jenny?"

They collided with each other, rather than one leaping into the arms of the other, and laughed inside each other's embrace.

"I thought you died," the Doctor stated with a furrow in his brow and a lost expression in his eyes. "You died. I lost you."

"Nah," she drawled out with a smile as she looked up into his face with a twinkle in her wide blue eyes. "I woke up." Her eyes remained wide, but she lowered her head to look across the table. It was an unfocused look. "I remember being shot. I remember you grieving before I even closed my eyes." She looked back up at him. "Then it went cold and dark, and next thing you know I woke up." He head shook slightly and her smile brightened further. "And all I wanted to do was to run. Run with my dad again."

"The running is very good," he agreed.

"Almost as good as dancing," she offered with excitement in her voice. She started to tug at his hands. "And you have to try it!"

"Ahh. Not much of a dancer in this body, Jenny."

"Call me Jen," she sang excitedly as she stepped backward toward the dance floor. "Rose does. Now come on, let's _dance_." With both of her hands holding onto his, each backward step lowered her into a deeper and deeper stoop. She was persistent, however, and refused to let him go. "It's so much fun. Come on, Dad!"

He looked to Rose helplessly. "Rose…?"

Rose chuckled and made a shooing gesture with her hands. "Well come on, _Dad_. Don't let your little girl down. Get out there and show her how it's done." She grinned and held up her drink. "Mark and me will be right here when you're done."

He pulled one hand free of Jenny's and pointed back to her as his reluctance finally gave way and he followed her tugging. "You better be."

When Jenny and the Doctor disappeared into the crowd, Mark gave a long sound of surprise. "Dad?"

Rose snorted a withheld laugh, which drew Mark's attention toward her. His face creased in warning. "Oh don't you dare."

Rose pressed her lips tightly together. She shoulders heaved and her face reddened.

"Rose," Mark warned darkly. "Don't you dare."

Her face reddened and even shifted into purple as she held onto the breath that she knew would explode from her mouth in laughter if she dared exhale.

"I mean it, Rose."

He couldn't help the amusement that started to tickle at his own lip. Try as he might, he struggled to maintain composure. He finally slapped himself on the forehead. "Of all the rotten luck … Dad …."

With that, Rose lost her composure completely. She exploded into a fit of laughter so full of thrill and glee that it echoed around the entire club. Mark was immediately lost within her laugh, and of the pure joy on her face, that be exploded into laughter himself. They were mirrors of each other as they clutched at their bellies, threw back their heads, and spilled tears from their eyes. They would pause a moment in their glee to look toward each other, then would immediately dissolve into laughter again.

"How's my luck?" Mark managed finally, wiping at his eyes. "I finally find the perfect woman … and she's my _sister_."


	9. Unwanted Affection

A/N: Well. This didn't go anywhere near where I had intended it to go. I thought: Oh yes, a fun family adventure for our intrepid travellers to embark upon. Fun, sun, happy, and free, they'd all get into mischief and mayhem and bond like family should bond.

Yeah. Nah. Apparently my muse had far more sinister plans. I'm going to be completely honest with you when I say that until I got to the stumble out of the vortex part of this chapter, I had no idea that _this_ was on the cards. Oh, trust me, I had other much more light-hearted ideas than .. than _this_!

But I like the idea in that I can stop this ridiculous hot and cold bullshit of Rose's and get it all out and aired much sooner, and with chapters that actually go somewhere. So I make very few apologies for the darker turn. Honestly, I did hint at something of this nature being in play in earlier chapters … now I'm just going in and running with it.

So that all said. I'm going to add a slight warning that there is a wee bit of trigger-worthy angst down there at the bottom of this chapter. The Doctor's going to have his work cut out for him, but he does best when he's got a worthy adversary … and this one is definitely one of my favourites!

Yeah .. and if Moffatt wants to ignore established canon that spanned an entire season of Doctor Who ... then I'll make it a parallel creation run amok in Prime.

So with all this I ask you: please enjoy. :)

GK

~~oooOOOooo~~

Spirits were still high, and the excitement unwavering as the foursome left the club at closing time. Jenny was by far the one most upset with their evening of dancing being brought to such an abrupt close, but with the Doctor's insistence that the night was still very young and that adventure awaited them outside, she eagerly stepped through the club doors to see what else their night held.

She stepped onto the sidewalk, held out her arms in drew in a deep and cleansing breath. "Okay," she said with a sigh. "This air is much better air than what was inside." She peeped and quickly jogged into line as the group walked along the sidewalk.

"I hear ya," Rose agreed with a sniff at her shirt. "Reckon I'll be smelling stale cigarette smoke in my hair and on my clothing for the next hundred years."

Mark snorted. "You _reckon_ , eh?" he questioned cheekily.

"Yeah," she threw back indignantly. "I do _reckon_."

"Then I guess you've never heard of a shower or a washing machine." He tapped at his chin with his finger and looked up to the sky in contemplation. After a second he seemed to reach his conclusion and looked back down to her with a cheeky grin. "Explains why you're so good out there in the field, Princess. All the vicious aliens run at the first scent of ya."

Jenny fell into stride beside Mark and gave him a curious look before looking back to Rose. "Rose. Are you a princess?"

"Hardly," she muttered before slapping Mark on the arm with the back of his hand when he burst into laughter at the question. "Enough from you, thank you very much." She looked back to Jenny with a roll in her eyes toward Mark, and a smile. "Why do you ask?"

"Just…" she hooked her hair behind her ear and creased her brow in question. "I've heard Mark call you that here and there, and just wondered why."

"Because he's being a sanctimonious smart arse."

Jenny smiled wide at that. "Which is considered socially acceptable, then?"

"No," the Doctor answered on Rose's behalf. He then creased up his face as he mentally revised that statement. "Well. It is and it isn't. The acceptability of being a sanctimonious git really does depend on the audience. Say something to a friend, and you'll get some friendly return jibes – much like the banter between these two He instinctively reached for and took Rose's hand in his. The other hand shifted into his trouser pocket. "Now. Say the same thing to someone else and you could end up in a physical altercation. Say the wrong thing again to the very wrong person and you could start a war."

Jenny blew out a breath through puckered lips and widened her eyes without looking at anything in particular. "Looks like I've got a lot to learn, then, doesn't it?"

"We all screw it up," Mark admitted with a shrug. "Can't be right all the time. Like this one time I told this girl at university – "

"Oh please don't," Rose moaned. "You're _like this one time_ stories always leave me with second hand embarrassment and the desire to disown you completely."

Mark thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. His arms where locked straight, which lifted his shoulders into a high shrug. There was a grin on his face. "If I didn't know that you love me as much as you do, Princess. I'd be shattered right now." He kept his hands in his pockets and leaned down deep to kiss her on the cheek. "But I know otherwise so … as I was saying: This one time at Uni –"

"Which proves my point," the Doctor concluded with a warning look toward Mark, who just threw his head back with a laugh. "Had Mark been a more sensitive fellow, and Rose had suggested that she was embarrassed by him and wanted to disavow him from her life, then her words – rather than be endearing – would be quite hurtful."

"I see," Jenny murmured with contemplation. "A bit like you calling me a genetic anomaly or just an echo of a Time Lord back after I was born?"

"Ahhhh," Mark breathed out knowingly. "He called you that, too, did he?" He slumped slightly, his hands still inside his pockets and let out a breath. 'Did you also get _biological accident_ and _nothing but a soldier_ as well?"

"Yeah," she breathed out through an open mouth and saddened eyes. But they quickly brightened up. "But once he got used to the idea … it all ended in a very exciting" her face creased slightly in regret. "And then sad." She brightened up again. "And then brilliant again once I woke up and stole myself a ship. I've had many great adventures since then."

"Well," Mark drawled as he thread his arm across her shoulder and guided them into a walk ahead of Rose and the Doctor. "Things turned out much different for me…"

Rose's hand tightened around the Doctor's and she let out a little breath. "I'll refrain from chiding you about bein' an arse…"

"Mainly because you've already spent a bit of time and a bit of violence calling me that," he groused.

"But," she said with warning for him to shut up a moment. Her voice softened. "But I'm glad that you came to your senses and took her into your hearts. She seems like a very lovely girl."

He nodded firmly. "And very capable."

"Brilliant?"

He grinned widely and looked down to her with a nod. "Oh, yes. Very."

"Like her dad."

The Doctor's face lengthened as he inhaled a deep breath. He held on his thoughts a moment and then relaxed. His head shook lightly. "No. Not from me. Not even from my people." He lifted his eyes to the sky. "Have you ever wondered why I pick up companions and have them travel with me, Rose?"

"Because you're useless on your own?"

"Well, yes. There is _that_ ," he chuckled. He sobered quickly. "Humans are an amazing species –"

"You call us _apes_."

He rolled his eyes. "Will you let me finish. And yeah, I may have done that when one of your kind is behaving like one, but it's not a belief that I truly hold." He exhaled. "Time Lords. We're a pompous lot. We think we know all there is to know, and therefore live an existence of arrogance and complacency that there's nothing else worth knowing." He looked at her. "Humans, well, you prove to me that they're all wrong." He swallowed thickly and when he spoke, it sounded slightly strained. "I spent a century at the Academy learning everything I thought there could be regarding the universe, her languages, her peoples."

"And the intricacies of time."

"That goes without saying," he agreed. "But once I started travelling, I realised that much of what was taught about at the Academy was biased and therefore corrupted by the Gallifreyan academics. They taught us only what they _wanted_ us to know and to believe, and revised the facts to suit those beliefs."

"I see."

"But with a Human at my side." He huffed out a laugh of awe. "Oh, did I learn. And it wasn't all about facts and figures. Humans, you're a compassionate species. So full of awe and wonder, and unending curiosity." He grinned. "And that. Well. _That_ is incredibly contagious. With you, I see the universe anew. With fresh eyes and renewed enthusiasm. I laugh. I cry. I feel excitement and thrill like I never could in the halls of Cadon."

He clutched her hand a little tighter and leaned down slightly to talk against the top of her head. "And fall in love."

There wasn't any hitch in her breath to indicate to him that she'd heard him, but he did see a smile kiss at the side of her mouth.

"Anyway," he sang out. "So I may be your rather knowledgeable tour guide, but you Humans, well. You're very much my teachers. I learn far more from any of you than you ever will from me."

"A touching sentiment," Rose breathed out. "But if we are so wonderful and give your life all this new meaning, then why do you treat us all like we're nothing."

"I really don't," he countered with a huff of frustration. "But you said it yourself: I don't like being in a room where I think someone may be smarter than me."

"Thought you said that never happened…"

"I am also a Time Lord," he continued. "Assinine attitude and self-righteous behaviour are drilled into our minds from looming. Hard to retrain all that overnight." He stopped walking and turned toward her. With their hands held between them, he lifted his free hand to cup at her cheek. "But with your help, Rose. I know I can be a better man." He drew his thumb along her plump lower lip and lowered his voice to a whisper of pleading. "Please help me."

Rose lifted her hand to capture his, and gave his knuckles a kiss. She released his hand and let it fall as she turned and started to walk again. "It's not me that you need, Doctor," she said gently. She then gestured toward Jenny with a tip of her nose. "Jenny, on the other hand. I think you could learn a great deal from her – your daughter."

He chuckled a deep and regretful laugh. "Yeah, and when she finds out that I'm not the man she thinks I am?"

Rose smiled. "Somehow, I really don't think that matters. What does matter is that you do your best to be the man she needs you to be: her Dad." She looked up at him. "Will you take her with you? When you leave, I mean."

He stared straight ahead of him, his expression rigid. "You still want me to leave." It was stated with fact in a voice that was by no means impressed. He didn't release hold of her hand, instead he tightened his grip. "I don't want to go."

"But you have to," she urged him quietly. "For me, and for you." She blinked and looked up ahead at the adorable blonde woman giggling at Mark's side. "And for her. Jenny's still young, and she has so much she needs to see and do. Who better to do that with than her dad?"

"You're going to drill that point home repeatedly, aren't you?"

She nodded and looked up ahead, where Mark and Jenny were increasing the distance between them by several long metres.. "She is. Doctor, I grew up without a father. I know how much a little girl needs one." She shook her head. "You can't abandon her, and you can't expect her to go out on her own without you."

He huffed. "I could say that she's done okay till now…"

"And I'd thump you if you did," Rose shot back. She blew out a breath. "But you'll do okay, you and her. It'll be just like having a new companion on board the old girl. She'd be thrilled, the TARDIS."

"Will you come with us?" he asked gently. "For at least one trip. You and Mark. Come with us – a _family_ adventure."

Rose grinned widely and slid her eyes to look up at him. "Aren't we already on one?"

"Doesn't count," he groused with a petulant curl in his lip. "We're on Earth. We're not on a new and exotic planet. Worse, I didn't get to see that excited look on your face when you got here." He stopped them again and turned to face her. His voice was husky as he once again lifted his hand to touch her face. "Rose. My thrill is _always_ from the thrill that I see in _your_ eyes whenever you step out of the TARDIS. I want to see the universe through _your_ eyes."

"It means _that_ much to you?"

"Rassilon, yes," he sighed as his forehead lowered to almost touch against hers. His voice fell to a whisper. "It's been so long, and I've missed you more than you can ever possibly imagine."

She breathed out his name through a whisper, and the Doctor took that as his invitation to reach out to her in a more intimate level. He peppered out her name and his love for her as he very slowly lowered his lips to hers. Rose licked her lip in anticipation of feeling his touch and lifted her hand to settle the pads of her fingers on the centre of his chest. The gentle, steady thump thump of his heart pulsed against her fingers, and immediately she was reminded that this man had only one heart beating inside his chest. One heart that had a finite amount of beats left.

… She couldn't do this again.

She breathed out a pained sound and shook her head at the precise moment that his lips brushed against hers.

"I can't," she whispered against them as she stepped back and shook her head. "Doctor. I'm sorry. I can't." Her breath inhaled shakily. "I just can't. I'm so sorry."

He tried to keep hold of her hand as she tried to shake him off. "Rose. I'm sorry."

She shook her head and battled against her own rapidly building emotion. "Don't be, Doctor. It's not you…" She inhaled a shuddering breath and stepped back from him. She lifted her wrist to type coordinates into her Vortex Manipulator. "I've got to go. Take Mark and Jenny back to my place, yeah? I'll see you later."

He reached forward to stop her. "Rose. Wait." He could hear the thundering footfalls of Mark on rapid approach with Jenny, and part of him began to panic. "Let's talk about this before you just take off on me."

Rose shot a look toward Mark when he called her name, and then looked back to the Doctor. She shook her head at him and wiped furiously at one eye with the sleeve of her shirt. "I can't. I'm sorry."

"Don't' do this," the Doctor growled angrily. "Rose, this is ridiculous! Don't you dare leave, I demand that you stay here."

Mark skidded to a stop in between them. His expression was one of utter confusion, but of vehement protection toward Rose. "What the hell is going on?"

"That's none of your business," the Doctor growled.

"Might'n be," Mark growled with equal darkness. "But I'll make it mine if you've upset her."

"Back off," the Doctor snarled, walking in toward him. Eye to eye both men looked fit to battle.

Rose put her hand on Mark's arm to settle him down. "It's okay," she assured him with a smile, very successfully hiding her emotion. "I just have to head back, that's all. You and Jen hitch a ride with the Doctor and I'll see you at home."

Mark held both her shoulders in his hands and lightly snaked his head to analyse her face and convince himself that she was okay. "Are you okay?"

Her eyes were sodden, and she couldn't really answer beyond shaking her head. She flipped the leather cover of her manipulator's face and pressed the button.

"Rose!" the Doctor growled as he snatched forward to try and grab her hand. "I said-!" He expelled a frustrated grunt when she disappeared.

"You bullheaded, irresponsible, _problem_ woman," he yelled toward the void where Rose had stood. "She's going to be my death, I just know it."

"Or I will be," Mark growled. He punched his fist into his hand. "Oh, let it be me."

"Oh settle down," Jenny shot in with obvious frustration. "Getting angry isn't going to solve anything." She looked at her father. "Do you know where she went?"

The Doctor inhaled a few sharp and deep breaths. He looked to Mark, and then toward his daughter. "Same place we're going. Come on you lot. This way. To the TARDIS." He started to run and then slowed when he noticed that they pair weren't running next to him. He turned and jogged on the spot. "Well? Come on then. This is Rose Tyler – wherever she ends up, you know trouble will be right behind her."

Mark nodded firmly. "Yeah. You're right about that."

Jenny skipped on her toes and started to run. "Well then what are we waiting for? Come on, chop chop."

~~oooOOOooo~~

The pull of the vortex hurt more this time than it usually did. She felt herself move one way, and then snap another as though captured by a secondary vortex arm that curled around her torso with a suffocating snake-like grip. She writhed and struggled against it, but finally gave in to the pull. When e emerged from the energy field, she stumbled and fell against a pillar, retching and battling to catch her breath. Panic filled her as she queried where she had ended up. She'd programmed the Torchwood hub, but knew that wasn't where she had ended up.

A scraping whine captured her attention and immediately her head shot up. Eyes wide and mouth gaped, she looked into the middle of the room to see the familiar coral cavern and mushroom-shaped console of the TARDIS.

"What the?"

She walked cautiously toward the console, panicked about just which TARDIS had intercepted her original flight plan. The coral was orange, the rotor light green … but that didn't exactly fill her with a huge amount of confidence. She stepped quietly along the grated flooring and approached the console with all the nervousness of a tiny animal trapped in a cage.

"Which one are you?" she questioned under her breath. The apologetic song she heard in her mind had her heart catch in her throat. Her eyes filled with frightened tears and her arms started to shake as she recalled the decade of horror she'd spent inside this TARDIS with her Time Lord.

He wasn't _the Doctor_. She would never call him _Doctor_ …

…Coincidentally, he didn't choose to go by that name, either. He had a different name, and one that was far more terrifying than the even the name Master.

"Hello Rose."

She froze at the voice; with its calm thespian sound and soothing accent. She didn't move, however, and she didn't speak. She couldn't do either.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you, my beloved." He stepped up behind her and let his voice ghost hauntingly against her ear. "And I've missed you."

She gulped thickly and looked into the image of them reflected off the glass of the rotor column. It was his thick dark eyebrows and his deep set hooded brown eyes that she looked into first. She didn't need her gaze to travel down to his mouth, almost devoid of lips, or his soft rounded jaw to recongise this incarnation of the Doctor. The sadness and the evil in his eyes was enough.

"W-What are you doing here?" she stammered meekly, shuddering as his hands slipped down around her waist, and the drew up toward her chest.

He turned his mouth toward her ear, pressing his lips against its shell, and chuckled lightly. "Why, I'm here for you, Rose." He hummed happily into her hair as he nuzzled affectionately into her blonde curls. "I may have taken a little detour and engaged in a little adventure with a foe of mine between my arrival and now. Such a pompous fellow I was in my sixth…"

Rose shuddered at his cool breath against her ear and swallowed thickly. "You were _never_ that man."

"Like it or not, my precious flower," he purred against her ear. "I very much was."

"But you're nothin' like him," she whimpered.

"That's where you're wrong," he corrected with a sigh. "I got all the best parts of the fool. And I don't know why you can't see it, love. Why you can't see that I am the man whom you love with both of your hearts…" He grasped hard at her chest, which drew her back hard against his. "With these two hearts. The two hearts that _I_ gave you."

She gasped a gulping breath and coughed out a sob. "I d-didn't want them," she stammered out, clearly terrified.

He roughly spun her in place and gripped tightly at her upper arms. He sneered into her face for a long moment, warring internally as to just what to say to her next. The Fear in her eyes calmed him almost immediately, and his expression softened. He relaxed his hold and drew her into an embrace. "A love as divine as yours requires two hearts," he said softly. "And I wasn't going to lose you again. Rose, I go insane without you."

She let her arms hang helplessly against her side, unable to reciprocate. Her eyes were wide, but now dry.

"Parallel to parallel, Rose, you were hard to track down," he whispered as he gently rocked the two of them in a tender sway. "But I'm here now, and have found you again. We're together once more and will never be parted again."

He throat was raw and her mouth completely dry. All she could do was hoarsely whisper a single word. "Yes."

"Yes, what, darling?" he cooed with encouragement.

"Yes, we are," she recited obediently.

He hummed happily. "I love you, Rose."

"And I, you," she replied emotionlessly. "Valeyard."


	10. Another Time Lord

A/N: This is a chapter that was written out of order to the last one. I started off thinking it was only going to be a wee chapter to lead into the fun and games of the next part, and it ended up being … well … a prequel to the other chapter I suppose…. I will see if I can re-arrange these chapters to make it fit.

If you see this as your first of two chapters, then it worked! And that also means that the following chapter will be one you've probably already read….

This chapter gave me a headache. It really did…. I'm not going to lie…. I hope it doesn't do the same to you when you try to read it.

I sinceriously hope that you enjoy this.

GK

~~oooOOOooo~~

Rose Tyler felt defeated as her parallel husband and captor wrapped his arms around her and began to sway them in place. She felt it to be more condescending than tender; more like a parent consoling an upset child than of a man embracing his lover. She suppressed her shudder at the notion. Tenderness wasn't exactly a strong weapon within the Doctor's arsenal. It was – if one would pardon the pun – an alien concept to him; this love, emotion, and tenderness thing. He tried, though. He tried hard…

…and he made mistakes. Big ones.

Part of her couldn't really blame him for it. How does a man, who was trained from birth to be an emotionless fool, suddenly and flawlessly embrace the moment and dive headlong into love without hitting his head on the floor and suffering a concussion on his way down?

The simple answer: He doesn't.

…Then again, neither could she. Despite everything that this man had put her through during their time together, she couldn't say that she didn't love him in some way. How could she not? He was the Doctor, she was Rose Tyler, and it was her job to make him better and to save him from himself. With the Doctor who held her in his arms right now, she'd failed that task…

… _You had one job, Rose Tyler. Just one. And you couldn't even do that right_ …

But that all said; the other part of her blamed him entirely for this and called him a _monster_. The Doctor was experienced enough in his many centuries of travel to be better able to ward off any malevolent forces to not become the villain of the week himself. Or was he?

 _"_ _It's either you die a hero_ ," he said to her once at the close of a particularly heartbreaking adventure, " _or you live long enough to become the villain._ "

Prophetic words, they were.

For a man who could see the timelines of everyone around him, it surprised her that he was unable to see that he would one day become the one thing he abhorred the most … all of it because of the one that he _loved_ the most. And that – _that_ – was absolutely devastating to her.

Was it arrogant of her to believe that; that she was the most intense love of his very many lives? Perhaps it was, but in those moments past where he held her thigh around his naked hip with one hand and clutched a fistful of their bedsheets with the other; when he desperately drove himself into her with tightly controlled passion over and over again; when he voicelessly cried out thanks to both of their deities as he spilled himself completely into her and then fell to kiss her with lips stained with salt from his tears; when he breathlessly declared his devoted and undying love for her as their final racing shudders slowed to heaved and sated breathing; how could she possibly assume otherwise?

Making love with this version of him, before he became the man dressed in black, had proven him to be the most passionate one of them all. Unlike his other parallel versions, this man was well practiced, and he knew exactly how to explore and ignite her body in ways no other man ever could.

Visions of their passionate couplings over the course of their relationship quickly filled her subconscious, and Rose actually licked at her lips with desire to experience each and every one of them all over again.

"We are so perfectly aligned, you and me," his voice suddenly purred across her mind. "The Sun and the Moon, day and night…"

It was at that moment that Rose realised that his temple was now pressed against hers. She quickly rolled her shoulders, lifted her hands, and shoved hard against his chest to escape.

"How dare you," she yelled as he staggered backward and she took a stride back. She lifted her finger to point at him with anger. "You did _not_ have permission to go into my head like that."

He thumbed at his nose and smiled somewhat darkly. He lifted his head and looked down along his nose at her. "Oh my dear Rose. I don't require permission to wander around in that beautiful mind of yours. I have an eternal standing invitation."

She backed off a few more steps and shook her head. "No you don't," she corrected with a growl.

"Oh, but I do," he countered with a tsk in his tone. "When you agreed to a marital bond, you left that door wide open in a very _permanent_ manner." He tilted his head and then tapped at his temple. "You have as much access to me as I do to you. So come on in, my dear. Come and see what you've missed this past while."

She narrowed her eyes. "No, ta. I don't fancy seein' what's in your mind right now."

He hummed his chuckle and then opened his arms wide to her. "Don't be like that, Rose. You've always enjoyed wandering in the brilliant landscape that is my mind."

"Yeah," she huffed out indignantly. "That was before you became a complete nutter and decided that I needed a telepathic chain around my throat so I wouldn't leave."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Come now. That's a little dramatic, don't you think?" He pointed toward the door with an outstretched hand. "You're free to leave any time you desire."

Her eyes flashed wide and Rose immediately ran to the doors of the TARDIS. It was with thrill that she grasped the doors with both hands ready to fling them open and escape.

"Well," he drawled apologetically. "That is to say, you're free to leave once the TARDIS is on solid ground, of course. Right now we're in the vortex, which makes leaving somewhat…" The side of his mouth curled up into a smile. "Impossible."

Rose pressed her hands against the wood of the doors and felt the rumble of the vortex winds buffeting it from the outside. She exhaled hard as her head dropped low, speaking toward the floor rather than to him. "And I'll expect that also means that my Vortex Manipulator is somehow deactivated as well."

His voice ghosted hauntingly against her ear. "I'm very much afraid to say that's the case, dear," he said with false apology tilting his voice. He inhaled deep to speak on a sympathetic tone. "For your own safety, of course. We're in the funnel of the vortex. You Manipulator is designed to skim along the outer edges, not swim right through it. My darling, you wouldn't survive it even if you could attempt it."

"Then land the T-TARDIS," she demanded with a stutter. "I can find my way home then."

She shuddered when his hand skimmed along her side and then settled on her hip. His voice tightened to a grown against the shell of her ear. "I've just found you again, Rose. Do you really think I want to let you leave me again so soon?"

"But you just said that I wasn't your prisoner."

His voice sang against her ear. A soft melody of trills and falls. "You are free to leave any time you wish, Rose." He chuckled, released her, and then spun a single twirl of flowing robes back from her. "If you love her, set her free." He stood in a regal pose with his hand held toward her in an invitation for her to join him in a dance. "When she comes back to you – and my darling Rose you came back to me – then they're yours."

She shook her head. She still didn't turn to face him and when she spoke her voice was almost pitiful. "I'm not nobody's."

His brows lifted at that. He held off on chiding her grammar. "You're mine, Rose, as I am yours."

She swallowed thickly and pressed both hands to the door at her chest. She looked at the white painted wood. "Please, Doctor. I want to go home."

He shifted up against her back once more. "The TARDIS is, and always will be your _home_ , my dear."

Her words hissed through her teeth in demand. "Land the TARDIS and let me go home."

His arm shifted to snap hard around her hip. He growled then he pulled her back hard against his chest. "Why are you being so selfish?" His breath was hot against her ear. "After everything I've given you; after all I've _done_ for you: An extended life. Regenerations. My home. My hearts…"

"Heart," she corrected. "You only have one."

He huffed a snort against her ear and then shoved himself away from her, spinning again in place and finishing his dramatics with his hands on his hips and a lift of pride in his head. "Oh, my darling wife. So much has happened since we saw each other last. We have so much to discuss!"

Rose finally turned to face him, but she didn't move toward him. Instead, she pressed her back against the doors of the ship. "What have you done?"

His brows lifted high. "An accusation right off the block," he stated with humour. "You do know me so well, don't you, Rose Tyler."

"Unfortunately, I do."

He rewarded her with a smile and gestured toward the jumpseat in an invitation to sit.

"I'll stand, ta," she short back quickly, unwilling to leave the doors.

He huffed out a long suffering sigh. "As you wish." His eyes brightened and he clapped his hands. "Have I ever spoken to you about my friend Koschei?"

She blinked. Her voice sounded worried. "You mean _the Master_?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes, he has been known to call himself that."

"Your mortal enemy." Her voice was flat.

"He and I have had our disagreements," he admitted with a roll in his eyes. "Nothing that couldn't be overcome once we found that have a common interest."

"Which was?"

He ignored the question. "Once upon a time, Koschei and I were friends. Very good friends, in fact. I suppose in your culture we would have been considered _best friends_ , although I do find the term to be rather deplorable."

"Yet you use it all the time with your companions," Rose said quietly.

He flicked a glare of annoyance toward her. "Using the term and actually _liking_ it are mutually exclusive," he ground out with distaste. "While at that particular moment, the companion in my TARDIS was at the forefront of the rather small circle of _friends_ that I had…"

"I get it," she cut in with frustration. "Your idea of a _best friend_ is just whoever happens to be there with you at the time." When he didn't immediately argue that point, she raised her eyes angrily. "Can the same be said for who you take as a lover?"

"Are you suggesting that I wed and bond with any woman willing to share my bed?"

Rose merely shrugged. Petulance flooded her posture and attitude. "You tell me."

"Are you also suggesting that I will move heavens and parallel walls to seek just _any_ woman who finds fancy in me?" His voice was becoming angered. "That I will work tirelessly, night and day, to do something _anything_ that it takes to make sure that I am never separated from the holder of my heart ever agains.."

"Heart," she corrected sharply, driving home the point that he was no longer a Time Lord.

"Hearts!" he growled in correction as he rushed in a glide across the floor to approach and then loom over her. He took her hands and forced her palms against his chest. "Feel them, Rose. Two. Two beating hearts that can only … that _will_ only _ever_ be given once."

She gasped and swallowed her breath with a gulping swallow. Below her fingertips raced two strong beating hearts. She pressed her palms down more firmly to seek confirmation and slowly lifted her eyes to his. Expecting to see a manic and furious expression, she was startled to find nothing but pure adoration and longing within them.

"Twin hearts," he cooed gently. "Two hearts that beat for you, Rose. Feel them under your touch." He growled a pleasured sound in his chest and closed his eyes. "They've been waiting for you. Waiting for you to take them in your hands; to nurture them as you always have me."

There was confusion and worry in her whisper. "W-what? How?"

His eyes flashed open wide, and then softened. A smile stretched across his face. "You were devastated when you first came to me, Rose. When you fell out of the portal, off the edge of the cliff and then into my arms, you were a distraught and lost woman."

"You make me sound weak," she breathed out as she shifted her hands from his chest and let her fingertips slide down along his belly and hips to fall at her side. Her head fell to hang low.

"Heartbroken," he corrected with a light shake in his head as he lifted his hand to curl her hair behind her ear and guide her head back up to look at him. "You'd lost me, and then lost yourself."

He thumbed a tear from her cheek and lowered his voice to a whisper. "You were lost, Rose. You were in pain. How many of me had you said goodbye to by then?"

"Five," she breathed out sadly.

"And just how many now?"

Her voice was tiny. "Fifteen. And I can't…." She sniffed wetly. "No more, Doctor. I can't do it anymore. It hurts too damn much."

He snatched her into his arms and held onto her tightly. Thrill shot through him when he felt her arms circle up to return his embrace. "That's why I went to Koschei," he began gently with his lips against the top of her head. "You and I, Rose, we are eternal. Soul mates. Neither of us want to say goodbye. And now, thanks to Koschei, we don't ever have to."

Rose stilled within his hold. "What are you talking about?"

He began to lightly sway them both together as one. "The same way I gave you yours," he said against her ear.

"S-So, you can regenerate now?"

He hummed a moment, and then shook his head. "Unfortunately no," he admitted with a sigh. "I was able to revert back to a full Gallifreyan physiology … at least the physiology that I had _before_ I became half human and half Time Lord."

"I don't understand," she whispered.

He shifted to rest his chin on top of her head and looked aimlessly out toward the front doors of his ship. "Time Lords only get 12 regenerations, Rose. Before I became me, I was on my Eleventh incarnation. After I was born, the Time Lord only had one life left to waste."

"But how did I get all 12, and you…?"

"You never had any to begin with," he breathed out. "You were born anew. A Babe fresh from the door to the Untempered Schism. Me, on the other hand. I still had the essence of my full Time Lord self inside me. My body simply reverted rather than rebirthed itself. I still only have one life, Rose Tyler."

"I see."

He pushed suddenly away from her. Excitement was on his face and in his dramatic movements. "But with Koschei, I can be born new."

Rose staggered backward, and didn't bother straightening up. "How?"

He stilled and regarded her somewhat warily. His voice fell to calm. "By taking the regenerations of another." He watched her eyes flash wide and her entire stature stretch up with protest, and held up his hand to prevent her from speaking. "I tried, you see, to take the remaining lives of the Doctor." He flicked his hand. "But I knew it was futile, of course. I've lived that timeline before and knew that it wasn't going to work." He chuckled. "But I played the game to Koschei's rules to make that old fool happy. To make him trust me."

Rose gulped.

"And I have to admit that it was quite exhilarating to mess with the head of my much younger self for a while." He laughed. "So very fun to torment him in the manner I experienced so many centuries ago. Oh, I was able to plot and counter every move he made – one step ahead at all times."

"But if you did that," she whispered. She then shook her head. "The Timelines…"

"I realize that, Rose Tyler," he huffed. "I _am_ an experienced time traveller. I know that if I destroyed him when he was still such a youngster that I faced ruining everything…" He approached her and drew the backs of his fingers down along her cheek. "Everything that we had, have, and will continue to have together."

Her breath hitched and she flinched back from him, but she said nothing as she backed away

"But I had to play the game to win Kochei's trust, and to learn the secrets he had about drawing the regeneration power from another Time Lord." He smirked and tilted his head to one side, creasing a look of pure malevolence into his expression. "And I dare say that it is a rather _exciting_ method."

"But you can't," she whispered.

His eyes flicked to hers. "Oh yes I can." He snapped his fingers. "With ease, dear Rose. As easy as you please."

She shook her head, her eyes wild with panic. "No, but you can't … the Doctor! He. He's _you_ , and you … you're _him._ "

He lifted his chin and started to laugh. "Oh my dear beloved. Your love and devotion to me, and to my fully Time Lord self are without equal." His laugh stopped and he lowered his head to regard her with a smile. "The Doctor really isn't in danger from me, anymore." His eyes widened and he lifted them to the ceiling with thought. "Can't quite say the same for old Koschei, however. I promise you that they will face off against each other in the future, and it will be interesting to note just which branch of the timeline's tree they'll take."

He blinked and looked back to her. "So many different pathways, dear. I cannot say for sure." He grinned. "But we can certainly take a trip along the Doctor's many parallels and find out, can't we?"

Rose's brows pinched tight into a perplexed frown. Her mouth gaped and she shook her head, but she said nothing.

"As I was saying," he began again as he made a slow approach toward her. His demeanour shifted from somewhat playful and open, to dark and stormy. "Trying to take any remaining regenerations that the Doctor has left really is a rather futile endeavour. He really has nothing left to give." He sniffed and slipped his arms underneath his robes to cross them against his chest. "One, maybe two. OR perhaps he's on his last and it will simply kill him."

He chuckled. "Not that _that's_ without its merits, of course." He caught her furious glare and merely shrugged at it. "But it's a definite waste of my time and efforts. Not when there are other Time Lords for me to get my HP meter filled."

Rose shook her head. "No, Doctor," she corrected. "Gallifrey's gone."

His brow lifted. "And didn't I just clarify to you that I very recently spent some time with a previous of carnation of mine on a planet filled with Time Lords and Ladies?"

If at all possible, her confused expression deepened further. "But. But he said. I mean. I thought…" Her lips pressed together and jutted juicily outward, and her eyes widened impossibly. She looked to him with a myriad of questions inside her gaze, but was unable to properly voice any one of them.

His breath caught, held, and he rushed forward to pull her in against his chest. "Oh my beautiful dear, that expression, your utter confusion…"

"Mental," she breathed out pitifully. "Everythin' always so mental with you. Just when I _think_ I have it sorted … you go and throw me something that proves I'm still an idiot."

"Not an idiot, darling," he cooed softly with a smile as he let his nose brush against hers. "But time travel is an intricate business. There is a reason that Time Lords spend more than a century at the academy." He chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. His voice lowered to a whisper. "But I can teach you, Rose. Stay with me and I'll teach you all of the deepest and darkest secrets that Time has to hide." He sighed deeply. "We will have centuries together for you to learn everything there is to know about it. Millennia, even."

Rose shuddered. She kept her voice low. "But how, Doctor?" she queried. "How can we be together for millennia if the Doctor doesn't have regenerations to spare?"

He shifted his head to stroke his temple along hers. His voice was a low purr. "He's not the only Time Lord I can reach, Rose. Haven't you been listening t me?"

"F-From Gallifrey?"

"No," he answered with a chuckle. "If I could have, I would have. I accessed Gallifrey through the Matrix of the Time Lords…" He sniffed and shook his head. "It would be too complicated for me to speak to you about the very specifics of my torment toward my Time Lord self."

"Can't dumb it down enough for me, yeah?"

He whispered against her temple. "I wouldn't disrespect you by dumbing anything down for you, Rose. You are far too brilliant to be treated that way."

"Never stopped you before," she challenged. "You routinely looked at me like I was dribbling on my shirt."

"No, Rose," he vowed. "You misunderstood my expression."

"Oh, Please…" She sighed. "Don't bullshit me."

He hummed and looked across the console with an unfocused gaze as he shifted his cheek against hers. "There is a Time Lord," he began. "One left…"

Rose blinked. There was another Time Lord out there? Was it the Master?

Her eyes widened. If the Master was still out there, then the Doctor had to be told about it. He had to be warned…

"A-Another Time Lord?" She ventured softly. "Who?"

He heavily drew his temple down along hers and growled as his consciousness brushed up against hers, kissed at the very edge of her mind, and was then pushed back by another presence within. A young, inexperienced presence who could no more force him out of her mind than he probably could out of a room.

Amateur.

Although an amateur, this Time Lord was still inside her mind as the other side of a bond inside Rose's mind of the sort he hadn't seen since the days of Rassilon. An unbreakable bond that would only be severed when one side had died.

There were only two ways that a bond like this could be forged: a familial link of a child and his mother, or the marriage bond between two lovers.

Rose wasn't a mother. That much he knew for sure. Which left only the latter option.

This bonded presence of Time Lord who wasn't _him_ – or any incarnation of him twisted at his gut and poked at the possessive animal within him. Whomever he was, the Valeyard would challenge, take from him any and all regenerations he had remaining, and then would toss him into the winds of the Time Vortex.

Before he could reply further to Rose Tyler, the TARDIS cloisters peeled out in warning. Immediately, he released Rose from his hold and ran toward the Console.

"We have contact!" he called out with a grin.

Rose walked cautiously toward the console. She made sure to be on the opposite side of the console to him, and looked around the console. "Contact with who?"

His smile was wide and his eyes dark as he shifted his attention toward her and toggled the switches in front of him.

"You wanted to know the identity of the unnamed Time Lord, Rose," he said darkly. The smile fell from his face and a sneer stilled his mouth. "I believe you may have already met."


	11. Troubled TARDIS

I had to shuffle things around because I wrote a new chapter that actually ended up preceding this one. Please visit the previous chapter for the new offering in this tale...

Sorry!

~~oooOOOooo~~

Mark, Jenny and the Doctor burst in through the doors of the TARDIS without ceremony, and indeed without even so much as a courtesy to each other. It was first in, first served, every man and woman for themselves.

It was fortunate that the TARDIS understood that her pilot and his siblings were going to force their way in, and made sure to have both of her doors open, so as not to injure shoulders or hips as they jostled their way inside.

The Doctor flew up the ramp toward the console, and quickly threw up a switch. He pointed his arm straight out to one side to gesture to the doorway without looking. "Someone close that, ta. The TARDIS tend to get a bit gusty when she enters the vortex.

Jenny looked at Mark, who was actually the last one to pass through the doors, fully expecting him to do as he was told. When he instead barrelled past her to join the Doctor at the console, she gave a huff and a shake of her head. Through the whine and wheeze of dematerialisation, she gently pushed both doors closed. She turned and waited at the doorway a moment to watch the two men jockey for position at the console, the elder of the two barking out orders like the captain of an aircraft ordering around his co-pilot.

She approached the console with care and dipped her hands into the pockets of her black leather trousers. "So," she sang out during a break in the conversation. "Can I be of any assistance?"

The Doctor looked at her with a raised brow. "Can you fly a TARDIS?"

She pursed her lips, looked around for a moment with wide eyes, blew out a breath, and then shook her head. "This is the first time I've actually seen the inside of a TARDIS, and I must remark…"

"It's bigger in the inside," Mark offered with a grin.

The Doctor looked at Mark with a grin that didn't falter at all when he turned to look at his daughter. "It's rather breathtaking when you see it for the first time, isn't it, Jenny? The awe will wear off shortly; hopefully before we land at our destination." He looked to Mark. "Which is where, exactly?"

Mark tipped his head to one side and widened his eyes as he kept watch on the control panel in front of him. "Well. I'm still waiting for the Tracking Monitor Control Board to finish its configuration." He blew out a breath and scratched his head. "Got me buggered why the old girl didn't just use the tracking data from her last flight."

"Remote Parallel Mode function is a bit iffy of this girl … Well, the old girl that I used to fly, and I am under the assumption that this girl is a carbon copy of my … of the _prime_ TARDIS, I suppose," the Doctor muttered with a scratch at his sideburn. "I'd been meaning to fix that, but … well … with no TARDISes left in the universe, there wasn't any need."

Mark rolled his eyes. "There's always a need." He looked back up to the Doctor. "How'd you trace our signal on the last flight?"

The Doctor shook his head and looked to the ceiling. He pressed his tongue to the back of his front teeth and exhaled a sound of question. "Not really sure about that. TARDIS just took off after the two of you."

"And she can't do that now for what reason, exactly?"

"Oh," the Doctor sang with irritation. "Because she doesn't _want_ to? I don't know."

Jenny cleared her throat to interrupt and waited until both set of eyes were on her. "If I may make a suggestion."

"You may," the Doctor replied cautiously.

"If we head back to Mark's Torchwood facility, then we can procure a Vortex Manipulator of the same make and model as the one currently used by Rose." She looked between them both. "I'm sure that if we can fold the Manipulator Chronon particle wavelength signal through the TARDIS matrix, align the refractor crystals, this will hopefully allow the TARDIS to better navigate the dissipating manipulator wake streams to locate her."

She paused to take a breath and looked between the two men, both of whom looked at her with wide eyes and gaped mouths. She took that in the negative and rubbed one hand down along the length of her arm and looked away from them. "Or not. It was just an idea."

Mark coughed out a short breath that sounded like a very long suffering sigh. " _Why_ did you have to be my _sister?_ "

Her eyes flashed to him. "And just what is that supposed to mean?" she snapped.

The Doctor fell out of his stupor. "I believe it means that if you weren't linked together by familial genes, he'd probably request a betrothal from your father."

She folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot on the ground. Her stare was severe and extremely unimpressed. "If I knew for a moment what you were talking about…"

"It means that I find you to be completely brilliant, to the point that you take my breath away," Mark blurted out with frustration. "The fact that you're my sister is disappointing in that… well." He winced a very tight grimace of complete and utter embarrassment. He twisted his wrist in the air near his face. "Well it is _bad_ , and at the same time it _isn't_. Does that make any sense to you at all?"

"No," she answered firmly.

"Well. It's great and brilliant that you're my sister and all, and that brilliance truly does run within the family." He sighed. "And then not to brilliant, because you're like the most incredible woman I've met, and I'm not allowed to date you." He winced. "And that just sounded completely disgusting and inappropriate."

Her eyes widened with realisation, and Jenny giggled. "Oh. I see. Well. Then let me apologise. Would you prefer I be less brilliant?"

"Absolutely not," he growled in with humour. "Although it does mean that I'm going to have to stand as sentinel for all the marauding males that sniff around…" He ended his words with a yelp when the TARDIS pitched violently and he was thrown into one of the coral arms that held the console in place. Immediately he looked up at the rotor column with a wince of annoyed question. "And just what the Hell was _that_ for?"

The Doctor let out a grunt as they were all thrown toward the opposite side. "I wouldn't blame her entirely for that," he growled with effort as he struggled to stay upright to twist a dial and scan the monitor for any data that might explain just what was wrong with his ship. "1100 Omegas and dropping fast," he called out. "We're losing power, and are going to get caught in the vortex."

Jenny held on tight to the console edge with both hands, managing to be the only one of the trio still able to remain upright. "Is that bad," she called out as the cloisters peeled out a warning.

"Wouldn't be if there was another TARDIS nearby to give us a boost," the Doctor chipped out through his teeth as he struggled with a lever that simply wouldn't give way. "Sodding lever is stuck. I can't pull for extra power if I can't shift this."

He grabbed Mark by the sleeve and dragged him toward the monitor. "Monitor the Neutronium Counter. Keep me posted on the power levels." He shifted to the pesky lever and grabbed at it with both hands. He spoke through his teeth as he pulled hard. "IF I can't budge this thing…"

"1000 Omegas and still falling," Mark injected helpfully. "Another ten gone and we won't get out of the Vortex at all, Doctor. Do something!"

The lever shifted and the Doctor let out a triumphant yell. That yell was only half a heartsbeat long and shifted immediately to a sound of concern. He snapped his fingers toward Jenny without looking at her. "Jenny, if you wouldn't mind. Keep this lever in place."

She didn't question the order. She ran immediately and took the lever, accepting the task with a firm nod of her head. "I've got it," she said with a grunt as the lever fought against her hold. "Now you go and do what you have to do to keep us from falling out of the Vortex and crashing."

The Doctor smirked a little and gave her a wink. "No chance of that, Jenny," he assured her. "Worst case scenario is that we find ourselves stuck in the Vortex…"

"Without enough energy left to keep the shields in place," Mark growled with correction. "Which means getting torn apart." He rolled his eyes. "Crashing into the ground at terminal velocity might be the preferred option in this case."

"Oh yee of little faith," the Doctor called out as he rudely shouldered Mark out of his way to access the monitor. He ignored the growl of protest from the young Time Lord. "I just need to release the locks on both the Ancillary and Dynamorphic power rooms…"

"And do _what_ , exactly?"

The Doctor's eyes flicked up irritably to Mark. "No need to be so condescending and rude…"

"I'm born from you," he argued, "so, yeah. There is."

"I will check on the stability within the Dynamorphic Power Station. Once I've confirmed stability, if the TARDIS continues to lose power, then I'll collapse the shell of the Ancillary Room and feed that energy into the TARDIS' Mass Converter…"

"…Which should then power up the emergency units," Mark finished with excitement building through each word. "Well, that's brilliant!"

"It may well be," Jenny snarled. "But you're wasting valuable time discussing it. Crow about it and preen later. Right now we're in emergency."

The Doctor looked immediately chagrinned. His happy smile fell and he gave her a firm nod. His voice fell to a croak of embarrassment. "Right. Of course." His grin widened and he thumbed behind him to the door. "Well, I'm off. Allonsy!"

He took a step forward, but was thrown back into the console as the TARDIS bucked and pitched again. He braced himself steady on the floor with his arms held wide and his feet planted wide underneath bent knees. "By Rassilon's Crest, TARDIS. Do you mind _trying_ to hold firm while I go and fix you up?!"

A smooth voice filled the console room. "It's not the TARDIS' fault, Doctor. Do go easy on the old girl."

The Doctor's stance remained braced, but his face shifted into an expression of total an utter shock and fear. Around him the violent pitch of his ship settled out, and she began to hum quietly.

"Systems returning to normal," Mark muttered worriedly. His eyes lifted to the ceiling as a look that perfectly mirrored the Doctor's seized his youthful face. "Energy levels have risen to acceptable levels and continues to rise."

"Yes," the charming voice crooned with amusement from all around them. "I do apologise for the ruckus. Different parallel means I have different wavelength signals to try and hijack." He sighed a forced sound of distress. "Your TARDIS crystals do vibrate at a much higher frequency than those of my TARDIS, so the Time Path Detectors cross-tracing of my TARDIS to yours was a little _off_." There was a chuckle. "Unfortunately, that put your TARDIS in my direct time wash. I'm very sorry about that. Won't happen again."

"What do you want," the Doctor growled toward the ceiling. "And make it quick. I really don't have time for you right now."

"Doctor?" Jenny called out worriedly in question. "Who's that?"

"Who am I?" the voice answered with a booming laugh. "Oh, do share who I am with your companion, Doctor. I simply must know how you intend on describing _exactly_ who I am."

The Doctor looked toward Jenny. There was fury inside his gaze. "That," he answered thickly, and then paused. His brows lifted, his eyes widened, and he spoke through lips that didn't close. "That is no one you need to worry yourself about." His fury cleared and he seemed almost jovial as he jogged around the console and made a dramatic show of flipping up a lever. "Communication cut. All gone. Finished. He's really just one of your run of the mill bad guy of the week kind of individual. Dealt with him before, was the victor…."

"We need to find Rose," Mark growled low under his breath. He hadn't taken his eyes off the line where the Time Rotor Cylinder married with the console, and didn't look to want to life his eyes any time soon. His voice was grave and the Doctor couldn't immediately tell if the lad was furious or terrified.

"Rose is fine," the Doctor managed darkly. "In fact, I think it might be a good idea to let Rose take some time to cool off by herself, don't you?"

Mark finally shifted his eyes to glare toward the Doctor. His voice was icy and full of venom. "Do you _know_ who that man is?"

The Doctor's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "I think the better question right now is do _you_ know who that man is?"

Mark inhaled hard through an open mouth to lift his head high. His eyes were locked on those of the Doctor, and he appeared to lift his stature enough to almost tower over him. "I am very familiar with the owner of _that_ voice." He snorted somewhat dangerously. "And just who he is."

"He is _not_ me," the Doctor growled. "I don't care what tales he told when I was in my Sixth form. He is not who he says he is." He punched at his chest as though in salute. "HE is _not_ me. No part of him is _me._ "

Mark sniffed. He shook his head and looked up to the ceiling as he let out a single huff of a laugh. "That's where you're wrong."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor barked incredulously. "What did you say?"

Mark lowered his head to glare toward the Doctor. "He is very much you."

"The full Time Lord Doctor," he corrected. "Not _me_." He snorted. "And even then I doubt the validity of _that_."

Mark shook his head and his fury shifted to upset. There was apology in his eyes as he shook his head and gave the Doctor a rueful smile. "That's where you're mistaken," he began quietly. He inhaled, held his breath a moment, and then let it out slowly with his words. "That man. He's very much you. More than he is the Full Time Lord who couldn't be arsed with handling any of us –" He swept his hand between the three of them. " – despite being our creator."

The Doctor didn't reply with words. He let a furious – and yet terrified expression - do all his talking.

"Deny it, Doctor," Mark continued with a flap of his hand. "I dare you. That coward with his pair of hearts and his TARDIS .. well .. he'd only acknowledge our existence if he thought we were dying and couldn't call him on it." He rolled his eyes. "And with you…" He shook his head, unwilling to continue.

"And how does that make the Valeyard _me_?" the Doctor asked thickly through a drying mouth. "I hate that man, don't get me wrong." His mouth winced up with digust. "But not enough to become _that_."

"Until you lose her," Mark said quietly. "In the most eternal way possible."

Jenny's stunned gasp and the swift movements of her hands to cover her mouth with shock were the only sounds that were heard after that revelation. The Doctor's breath drew in hard and held, and it was only moments before he was reminded that he no longer possessed a respiratory bypass. At the ache in his lungs, he exhaled as hard as he'd drawn in the breath.

"What do you know?" he asked on little more than a whisper. There was fury inside that breath, but there was also a decent dash of fear.

"More than I want to," Mark admitted as his eyes drifted shut and then tightened into a wince. "That man is an absolute Monster, and if he gets hold of her again…" His wince tightened and his face dropped off to one side. "Then…"

The Doctor's voice squeaked. "Again? What do you mean by again?"

"I … I can't," Mark muttered quietly with a shake of his head. There was a light touch of tender fingers against his arm, and Mark opened his eyes to look down into a pair of radiant blue eyes. Jenny's expression showed concern, but also resolve. She obviously had no intention at all in allowing any of them to wallow inside of anything right now.

"You have to tell," she adivised him softly, but firm. "We need to know what happened in the past so that we're prepared for the future. I'll better prepare us to battle him if we have to."

Mark replied with a wry smile. "It's not a matter of _if_ , Jen, but a matter of _when_." He looked toward the Doctor. "We have to find Rose, and _now_."

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed with a croak as he flew toward the console and started to work through the motions of restarting the TARDIS engines. "Back to Torchwood, then."

Jenny's eyes flicked to the Doctor and then back to Mark. "While the Doctor is piloting us back to Torchwood, I think you should tell us what we need to know."

"It's really Rose's story to tell," he ventured meeky.

"Not right now it's not," she corrected sharply. "You're worried about her safety, and this TARDIS has been compromised by a man you say is on a mission to find her."

"A man," the Doctor added. "Who he claims is me."

Mark's eyes flicked upward. His gaze heated. "It's a _fact_ ," he argued. "That man. He's the metacrisis version of the Time Lord Doctor from another parallel." He waited until the Doctor took a step backward in shock and disbelief before continuing. "In that parallel, the Metacrisis you and Rose came together almost immediately. Had a happy life, the two of them. Got married, messed about the planet while the TARDIS was growin', then took to all time and space once their TARDIS was grown."

The Doctor gulped. "Then what happened?"

Mark shrugged as his hands slid inside his jeans pocket. He lowered his head. "There was an uprising up on Geolima in the Grfano region." He lifted his head to give him a stare of accusation. "Rose didn't want to intervene, because she'd had some premonition of the two of you getting separated. Bu-u-ut. Well. You being you, scoffed at it and went on in anyway, with your loyal and devoted wife right beside you."

"Oh," Jenny sang worriedly. "I really don't like where this is headed."

"Then you might not want to listen," Mark responded with a shrug. He looked back toward the Doctor. "One thing led to another, and good old Tentoo…"

"Who's Tentoo?" the Doctor asked shortly.

"You are," Mark replied without falter.

"Pardon me?"

"I'll explain it later," he huffed impatiently. "But anyway. Because of your foolish actions, Rose was killed by an insurgent during that uprising."

"What?" he huffed out with utter confusion. He looked to Jenny, to the Rotor Column, and then back to Mark. "But I'd never allow that. Rose Tyler is – and always will be – my number one priority."

Mark laughed out loud. "A lie and you know it."

"Don't!" Jenny spat out with warning as her finger flicked up fast between them. "Enough of this urinating competition between the two of you."

"That would be _pissing_ ," Mark corrected cautiously.

"Same thing," Jenny growled.

"Well, no," the Doctor muttered with a scratch at his jaw.

Jenny silenced him with a hiss. She folded her arms across her chest and glared through her fringe at the both of them. "I will ask you both to shelve this discord you have toward each other and focus on the quandary that we have on our hands." She looked to the Doctor. "You need to listen and keep your mouth closed until he is finished. You interrupting him with every revelation is not only incredibly rude, but wastes the time we could otherwise use to make sure that Rose is safe."

At Mark's snort, she shot a glare toward Mark. "And you need to be less condescending and more forthright with what you're saying." She lifted her head to look down her nose at him. "Despite whatever anger you have toward our father, you need to move past it to ensure that the woman who should be our mother is kept safe at all costs."

She flicked her head in a gesture toward the Doctor. "Tell him what happened. Be frank about it." She pointed to the console. "I'll move over here and do a rough read of the flight manual to get us to Torchwood."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I'll…"

"No!" she yelped sharply as she pointed toward Mark. "Sort it. Get the intel. Make a plan."

"Want to say kiss and make up as well, Jen?" Mark groused almost playfully. The looked he was rewarded with immediately had the tall man slouch back with fear. He looked toward the Doctor and actually shuddered.

The Doctor looked up expectantly. "On Rassilon's Crest I vow to remain silent."

"Can't have much respect for old Rassilon," Mark chuckled. "Because we both know that's a lie."

"Just get on with it," the Doctor moaned impatiently.

Mark pressed his lips together and nodded firmly. "Right. Where were we? Oh, how your stupidity killed Rose."

The Doctor snarled, but didn't comment.

Mark's voice softened. "Losing Rose. Well, it drove you mad," he said with a sad shrug. "You were together for two decades when she was killed. That was a long time to have someone in your life, Doctor. Usually you have them for a year, maybe two. Not much more than that."

"And," the Doctor managed with a croak over a dry tongue. "And you're saying that in my madness I became _him_?" He shook his head. "No. He's a completely different man to me. I don't have any regenerations to change into another man."

"Yeah," Mark drawled. "But not right away. You just lost your head and got all vengeful against the Universe." He cleared his throat and winced. "And then Rose. Our Rose. She happened to end up in his universe."

A look of worry crossed the face of the Doctor. "And he thought he got a second chance?"

"Yep," he answered with a heavy pop in his p. "He had her again, but Rose. She had a mission, and the time came when she had to leave." He swallowed thickly. "And that's the moment when Tentoo died and the Valeyard was born."

"I created myself, you mean?"

"In a manner of speaking, yeah," he answered with his eyes on the ceiling in thought. Then he shook his head. "But grief had a bit to do with it."

The Doctor shook his head. "No. I don't believe you. There is no way in any universe across the entirety of the multiverse that I would ever allow myself to become _that_ man."

The smooth voice returned with a chuckle from behind them. "Oh, Doctor. I'd listen to your companion if I were you. He seems to know what he's talking about."

The Doctor and Mark turned slowly on the balls of their feet to face the voice that spoke to them. Their shudders were identical as a holographic image of a man wearing robes of black shimmered and stuttered into view in a corner of the Console room. Behind him stood an image of Rose Tyler, still dressed in her '80's club outfit, looking disheveled and downtrodden. Her head hung low and her hands held together as though tethered in front of her.

"And really," the Valeyard sang with intrigue and a curious look toward Mark. "I'd really like to know just _how much_ you really know about me, and how."

Mark's eyes had been locked on the image of Rose, but suddenly flicked up toward the Valeyard. "Let her go."

"Ooh," the Valeyard whistled out with a laugh. His eyes drifted to the Doctor. "It looks like we have some competition for Rose's affections, doesn't it?"

"Back off," the Doctor snarled. "And do as he says. You want my regenerations, then you an have them. Just give me back Rose Tyler, and you can take everything I've got left."

"Which is exactly zilch," the valeyard sighed as he made a zero sign with a curl of his fingers and thumb. "There's nothing left in you to try and take."

"Then take mine," Mark offered with a snarl. He pounded his chest over both hearts. "I'm still on my first, Twelve regenerations right here for the taking."

Rose's head shot up. "Mark! No!"

The Valeyard's eyes shot wide. They shifted between Rose and then back to Mark. "Oh! Is _that_ who you are?" His smirk deepened. "I know _exactly_ who you are."

"And who might that be?"

"You're the one in her head," he answered simply. "A bond of the likes I haven't seen since I was a loomling back on Gallifrey." His lips curled into a snarl. "And one you don't have permission to have with her."

"Don't I?" he grinned darkly.

The image of the Valeyard stalked forward, snatching holographic against a lapel he couldn't touch. "She is _my_ wife," he snarled. "Not _yours_."

"What's wrong?" Mark challenged with a sneer. "Jealous?"


End file.
